A Whole New World
by Lady Fingers20
Summary: Bella finally becomes a vampire and starts to test out her new world, with a little help from everyone else.
1. Changes

**A/N: So this is my first Twilight fan fic ever. I have quite a few chapters done, but I'll be posting more later… I'm really nervous about putting them up here, so thanks for taking the time to read it! Also thanks to the loverly jayhay over at Live Journal for Betaing this one for me!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic.**

There was a lot of heat-I could remember that much. I thought the world might have been on fire, and I was left alone to incinerate. In one wave of consciousness, I believed that I was touching an iceberg - my right hand was so cold. I managed to open my eyes just enough to see that Edward was holding my hand.

For three days and three nights, I remained like this. I was unable to concentrate on anything but the fire ripping through my veins. At times it was so intense that I believed I would die. For three days and three nights, I was unaware of myself and my actions. A small part of me knew that I was unconscious. With the amount of pain that I was in, it was impossible for me to be awake. I vaguely remember the screaming. The ear-piercing screeches that would rouse me from this inner realm of which I had sunk into.

I regained consciousness enough again to register my surroundings. I listened as Edward spoke to me,  
"Bella, Bella my love. Come back to me. Come back. I will make it all better, just come back."

I could hear footsteps coming closer and something cool was pressed against my forehead. That someone kissed my cheek and whispered,

"Bella. Oh, Bella."

It was Alice. I slipped away again.

Then, there was a new sensation. The fire was gone. It was replaced by almost a calm feeling.

That's when I realized I wasn't breathing. I panicked. I truly believed I was dead, but then I heard their voices.

"How much longer, Carlisle?" Edward asked. I felt his hand shift over mine.

"This is taking longer than normal... but don't worry, Edward."

The pause made it clear that Edward gave him a panicked face. Then I heard the sound of footsteps and, by the sound of it, the door burst open.

"Have some respect, Alice," Edward growled.

"Why? I just saw her waking," she replied.

"Did we miss it? Emmett told us," Esme explained.

"Bella?" Edward said, close to my ear.

I opened my eyes to look up at him.

"Bella!" He hugged me and gave me a kiss, his eyes full of life.

I looked around Edward's room at the people standing in it-my new family. Edward was to my immediate right, looking concerned. Carlisle and Esme were beside him, Carlisle with his arm around her. Alice was beaming at the foot of my bed, while clutching Jasper's arm. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets. Rosalie looked down at me with an air of remorse to her while Emmett, who was to my immediate left, winked at me. I tried to sit up but Carlisle held me back.

"Just take it slow. You have to adjust."

"Adjust to what?" My voice sounded the same, but my mouth was completely dry as if a sponge had sucked up my saliva. I clutched at my throat and Carlisle chuckled.

"Things like that. It's not nearly so bad when you're not so-"

"Carlisle," Edward interrupted.

It was then that I noticed my hands. They were no longer the fleshy color that they were three days before. Instead, they were the strange shade of almost grey that the rest of the Cullens' skin looked like.

"Bella," Alice breathed to her. "You look absolutely gorgeous."

Esme nodded with a smile.

"I want to see myself," I said, sitting up. This time Carlisle let me.

"Rose," Emmett said. She turned around for a moment and then handed me the hand mirror off Edward's dresser.

I took it and closed my eyes. Edward squeezed my hand and I opened them to see my new face.

The face I saw in the mirror was not mine. It couldn't be. The face looking back at me was absolutely perfect, in every way. The lips I touched were perfectly plump and rounded. They moved when I told my brain to open my mouth, but they were not mine. The nose my fingers lightly ran over was like something Michelangelo could have sculpted. Same with the cheeks. But they were not mine.

At last, I willed myself to look into the eyes of the face in the mirror. The eyes looked different, pained, almost. They were red and bloodshot. There was also a hint of something else, something I had never seen in my life. It was almost like... thirst. They looked like the rest of the Cullens' when they were thirsty, black as coal. They were not mine.

I looked away and noticed that everyone but Edward had left the room. I swung my legs over the edge 

of the bed and stood up in one fluid movement. I swayed on the spot and Edward grabbed my arm to help me regain my balance. I walked over to the huge window and stood looking outside and wrapped my arms around the skinny body that couldn't belong to me. Edward came and stood patiently beside me.

"It's all strange, isn't it?" he asked softly.

I nodded. "I never thought it would be like this."

He smiled his crooked smile that I love so much at me and, for the first time ever, my heart didn't beat wildly. In fact, nothing pounded against my chest. Deep inside, I knew this was what I had wanted. Yet, I didn't know that I would miss my old, human self as much as I did in that very moment.

"They're scared if me, aren't they? That's why they left."

"Bella," he muttered, though I heard it very clearly. "They are not scared of you. I mean, Jasper had a really hard time when he was a newborn, and he could be trouble. You witnessed that yourself. So don't think that. They're just giving you some time to... adjust." His eyes flickered with amusement while he said that last word.

I looked away. Immediately his arms were around me and he was pressing his lips into my neck. I sighed and turned towards him, putting my arms around his neck. I looked up into his golden eyes and closed mine as we kissed. It started out slow as usual, but when I pressed myself to him more eagerly, he didn't freeze up and stop like he usually did. Instead, he pulled me closer and began kissing me even more fiercely. I was just beginning to wonder what might result in this new change in Edward when he pulled away.

"That's enough, Bella."

I glared at him. "You said that once I turned it would be safe. That you wouldn't have to worry anymore."

He sighed. "Bella, I know I said those things, but do you truly think that it's wise for us to do that when you're just a newborn?"

I looked away. "So you're saying I'm going to have to wait another century, aren't you?"

"No, Bella. I'm not. Remember, I want this just as bad. We just have to consider your safety."

I spoke through clenched teeth and repeated myself. "But you told me you wouldn't have to worry ab-"

"I am always going to worry about you," he interrupted. "Not even you changing you into a nearly indestructible immortal can stop me from worrying about you, Bella."

I looked away and felt irritable with him. I couldn't remember ever feeling this way towards him.

"What is it, love? Something's bothering you."

"I just feel like... like... almost, fed up, I suppose you could say. I don't know what to do with myself," I admitted. "This is all so new to me."

He nodded, eyes full of understanding.

I pressed my forehead to his and continued. "I just don't know what to think. I walked over here faster than anything I could have ever imagined. And like, a million different emotions are running through my head. I'm scared of this new Bella that I've become, yet I'm excited to spend the rest of eternity with you. It's almost like I'm not myself. Look at me, Edward." I then realized that command was completely unnecessary. He was already looking at me. "It's still me on the inside, I know it, I just. Look, completely different on the outside. I never thought I could look this. This..."

"Gorgeous?" Edward offered finishing my sentence and then laughed. "Sure, to others you may look like a completely unnaturally beautiful being, but to me you're still my Bella. To me, it doesn't matter what you look like now; I saw you before. I got to know you, fell in love with you. You're my Bella...who just now happens to sparkle in the sun," he teased.

"There's something else..." I started to say.

His eyes immediately filled with worry, his face relatively calm. I reached up and touched his cheek.

"I feel almost...empty. No, that's not the right word." I let my hand drop to my side. "It's like, something's almost... it's in my stomach, and my throat. Like it's..."

"Missing something?"

"Yeah. Like it's urging me to do something and I'm putting it off, but I don't know what it is."

"You're thirsty."

The word echoed in my head for the several seconds it took me to register its meaning.

"Thirsty?"

"Yes Bella. You need to hunt."

We stood in silence for a moment, letting it sink in.

"You're brand new. All newborns are thirsty. I'll take you out to hunt now. I'll show you."

Instantly I was scared. He took my hand and started to lead me outside, but fear rooted me to the spot. I jerked his arm with the strength I didn't know I had, but it didn't seem to hurt him. He turned around to look at me, smiling.

"Yes, Bella?"

"Don't let me hurt any humans." His smile faded instantly. "I'm serious, Edward. I won't be able to live with myself if I kill a human," I whispered the last few words, but he caught them.

"Bella, I will not let you. I will take care of you. Never fear, love. Wherever you go, I go. Your pain is my pain. You die, I die. I love you Bella Cullen. Always remember that."

He kissed me very passionately and we broke away, both smiling.

"I don't plan on dying. Ever."

"Neither do I," he replied.

We then walked toward the big, open window in his room together, hand in hand. As a vampire couple.

**As always, reviews are lovely and greatly appreciated! ******


	2. The Beginning

**A/N: I haven't received any reviews for the first chapter, but I really wanted to put his one up, for whatever reason, so I did!**

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight and I do not make any profit off of this fic. All characters belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer.

I was really scared.  
Words cannot even begin to describe it.

Edward and I were walking alongside the river that flows behind his house-my house, now. Well, truly we weren't "walking" in the human sense, slow and sauntering. We were walking as normal vampire do. I suppose that if I were still human I might have had to jog to keep up. It was then that I appreciated how much Edward had to slow himself down for me; his walking, his talking, his entire being had to slow to my snail's pace.

"Thank you," I muttered.

"What did you say?" he looked down at me as I realized that I had said it out loud.

"You heard."

"Why are you thanking me?" he seemed amused.

"For putting up with me when I was human. It must have been painful for you to not move around at a normal, regular pace."

He laughed. "I didn't realize it was that funny," I mumbled.

He pulled me close and kissed my forehead.

"Bella," he breathed into my hair, kissing my forehead again. "We have been blending in with humans  
for years. It's not a problem at all."

We walked along the bank for a little while and then he stopped walking.

"What is it, Edward?"

He looked at me, smiling.

"We're going out to hunt, but you," he touched the tip of my nose. "You need to learn to run first."

"I already know how to run," I protested.  


"As a human. Running as a vampire is different. Carlisle had to show me, and everyone else that he turned how to."

"What can be so hard about it?" I demanded.

"It's not that it's hard, it's just... difficult. Now," he backed up several steps from me. "I want you to run to me."

I narrowed my eyes. What could be so hard about this. My legs started moving fast and I stopped almost immediately. I swayed on the spot and Edward was by my side in an instant, holding me up. My head felt almost dizzy, though vampires don't get dizzy.

"Why don't you try it again. It gets easier, I promise."

I nodded.  
This time I was prepared.

I ran this time, taking in the experience. It was almost if the world around me sped up to an incredible speed. Everything was blurry around me, I could not see the passing trees. Ahead of me, it was very much like having tunnel vision. I could see the world crystal clear, everything was defined and I was attuned to every single leaf or branch or animal in front of me. I slowed down and stopped, looking around. I had no idea where I was, nor did I have a vague clue of how to get back to Edward. I panicked. Then, I heard his voice, speaking very calmly to me, as if he were standing directly next to me.

"Bella. Come on back now."

"How?" I asked in to the thin air.

"Focus on me. You will find your way."

I was shocked. Could he have actually heard me? There was no way.

I pushed that thought from my mid and concentrated on Edward. I visualized his smooth skin, his bronze hair, his coal black eyes. Before I even realized it, I was running. I felt arms around me and abruptly stopped running when I realized I had found him.  
He smiled my favourite crooked grin and bit down playfully on my nose.

"Could you actually hear me?"

"Yes, Bella. Didn't you hear me?"

"Well, yea. But I didn't think you'd be able to. I thought it was just my memory envisioning you again."

He chuckled. "You're a vampire now, Bella. Things are different."

I nodded, feeling foolish.  
He took my hand and pulled me along.

"Let's go. They're waiting for us."

"Wait. Who?"

He looked at me. If my heart could still beat, the look he gave me would make it beat so hard, I would swear I was having a heart attack.

"Did you seriously think you and I were going hunting alone?"  
I shrugged.

"Silly Bella," he smiled. "Of course not. But I would take you out alone if I could."

I raised my eyebrows.  
"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You're new, love. I promise I will do everything in my power to help and protect you, but it's always good to have extra sets of eyes around the first time."

"Do you think I'm going to slip up?" I whispered.

"Bella, no." He cupped my face in his hands. "I believe that you have the will power to restrain yourself, I'm just not sure whether hunting will change that or not." He pulled me in and hugged me.

"What do you mean?" I said in to his shirt.

"I'll let Carlisle explain," he pulled away and took my hand once again. "He's better at it than I am."  
I sighed and let him tow me along.

"Let's run," he suggested.

"But I don't know where I'm going..."

"So we can hold hands the whole way. I won't let you go. Let me guide you, love."

We ran together and were at a clearing in no time. Once I steadied myself, I looked around to see who 

all was waiting there.

Carlisle was standing talking to Jasper while Emmett grinned at me as he came barrelling towards us. Alice was already at my side. Emmett ran into me, to hug me, with such force that I should have been knocked down. Instead, to my fascination, I didn't even budge an inch. I hugged him and turned to Edward.

"This is what you call "extra sets of eyes"? There's like a hundred people here!"

He shrugged and Emmett pulled away, laughing.

"I wouldn't miss this for the world. Too bad Esme and Rose hunted last weekend."

"Thanks, Emmett," I rolled my eyes.

"My turn!"

Alice threw her arms around me and I hugged her too.

"Woah, Bella. Watch out that you don't squish me."

I immediately let go of her.

"I'm so sorry, Alice. This is all so new to me," I apologized.

"I know, Bella," She giggled and kissed my cheek. "It's fine."

Carlisle and Jasper then walked over and joined us. Jasper smiled and put his arm around Alice as Carlisle began speaking. "Bella. Are you nervous?"

"A little." I admitted.

Edward squeezed my hand.

"Understandable." Carlisle nodded. "I would have liked to do this in the daylight," he looked up towards the starry sky above. "But I don't think that we can wait that long." He looked at my eyes and continued.  
"Bella, there are some things we need to go over before you hunt."

It all happened in less than a second. My eyes narrowed and the thing, whatever it was, in my stomach wanted to rip Carlisle's throat out. I blinked and it was over. I clenched my stomach and tried to suppress this feeling. I hoped Alice didn't see what just happened in one of her visions.

"You okay, Bella?" Jasper asked. "You look worried."

"I'm fine, Jasper."

Carlisle began to explain. "When we hunt, we don't use the senses that we use now, in our everyday life. Your thirst takes over. You can't concentrate on much else except the animal you hunt. It's a bit hard to explain, but you'll understand more when you let it take over."

"Don't be scared, Bells," Alice whispered.

"I'm not," I whispered back. The truth was, I was terrified.

"Basically what happens is you let it take over and you smell out your prey," Jasper began. "Once you figure out what is it, you can begin to track it. It's easiest to run, because there aren't any animals who can out run us. When you are close enough, you..." he looked at Edward who shook his head ever so slightly.

"You pounce on that sucker and bring him to the ground!" Emmett pounded his right fist in his left hand and he said this.

"Er, Yeah. Thanks Emmett for...finishing that off for me," Jasper said to him, clapping Emmett on the back.

"No problem, Jasper brother."

Alice spoke next. "Edward will be with you the whole time, guiding you along. Emmet, Jasper and I will be circling you if you need help and Carlisle will stay back here, at home base, I suppose you could call it."

"Why so many precautions?" I asked her.

"They're not so much precautions, Bella, as support. Edward will, of course do an amazing job to protect you, but in case you need us, we're around." She grinned.

"What about you guys?" I asked looking around at their black eyes. "Don't you need to hunt too?"

"After, Bella. We will hunt after you're done and headed home. You have our undivided attention," Carlisle said. "Well, I believe that's about everything for now."

Emmet, Jasper, Alice and Edward all nodded.

"Ready, Bells?" Edward asked.  


I sighed and nodded. "Yeah."

We began walking towards the trees and Emmett, Jasper and Alice disappeared. They were all around us, I knew, yet it was nerve wracking.

"What if I mess up? What if it doesn't work?" I whispered to Edward, clutching his arm.  
He looked down at me with a worried look on his face.

"Bella."

He put his hands under my arms and lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his upper body and hugged him. He ran his hands through my hair, rocking me from side to side.

"Bella," he breathed in to my ear. "Everything is going to be just fine. I won't let anything bad happen to you I promise, my love. You are safe with me."

I never wanted him to let go of me, and he probably didn't want to either, but he slowly let me down until my feet were back on the ground.

He hugged me one last time and backed up.

"Now. We have to get down to business." I nodded, reluctantly.

"Alright. You're going to have to focus really hard now. I want you to sniff the air."

I looked at him like he was insane.

He sighed. "Just do it, Bella."

I sniffed.

"Again. Deeper this time."

I scowled, but did as he told me.

This time I smelled something very appealing. I closed my eyes and breathed in the smell.

"See? You're found something," Edward said to me. "Now try and figure out what it is."

"How?" I asked with my eyes still closed.

"Picture it. Think of the scent and the different elements to it. It will come to you."

I breathed in again and though about it. I opened my left eye to look at him.

"I didn't think vampires could smell."

He chuckled. "Vampire, Bella. That's the key word to your question. We don't smell in the same way that humans do. We use our instincts." he shrugged. "It's part of who we are. We smell blood. But if I were to pick up, say, this daisy..." he picked it from the ground. "And do this..." he held it under my nose. "Could you smell that?"

"No," I admitted.

"But you can still smell your animal?"

"Yes."

"Then there's your answer."

I breathed in the mystery smell once more and instantly knew what it was.  
"It's a deer," I said, confidently.

He didn't answer me, so I looked at him.

"Right?" I asked.

He quickly sniffed the air and nodded.

"Now, this is where we act fast because it's moving away."

I panicked. This was it.

"Let yourself go, Bella."

"What?" I looked at him, very confused.

"You need to let your physical, present state of mind go and give in to your natural self. This is what Carlisle and Jasper were talking about by letting yourself go."

I put my hands on my hips. "How exactly do I do that?"

He looked me in the eyes. "Forget about everything. Forget about the world around you. Forget that 

Alice, Jasper and Emmett are watching..."

"Well I actually wasn't thinking about that until you mentioned it," I said.

The sound of Emmett's booming laugh came through the trees to my right.

I sighed. "Okay."

I closed my eyes to concentrate, only thinking of the smell...the delicious smell. I couldn't believe I just thought of that, but I ignored it.

I pictured the deer alone in the forest just three miles from where Edward and I stood. My hearing sensed its heartbeat-something that only had a few beats left.

Instinctively, I crouched lower and growled.

"Now go," Edward instructed, his voice sounding distant and muffled.

I opened my eyes and began to run.


	3. Understandings

**A/N: Thanks so much to Bridget Cullen for the lovely review! I really hope that more people discover this story! Laughs Oh, well!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight and I do not make any profit off of this fic. All characters belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer.**

All I could think of was my goal.

I could see the deer ahead of me, unaware of my presence, unaware of it's fast-coming death. I ran up close to it and stopped. I stood behind a tree, feeling the venom pool in my mouth, waiting for the perfect moment.

A noise sounded to my right and the deer looked up to see what the noise was. This was my second.

Instantly, before I even knew what I was really doing, I was running, no, flying towards my deer.

Before I even knew what I was really doing, I had jumped upon it and broke it's back upon impact with the earth below it.

Before I even knew what I was really doing, I had the deer pinned to the ground and my thirst propelled me to take a bite.

Without hesitation, my teeth plunged into its neck.

I closed my eyes and began to feed.

The monster inside me-so I had dubbed it-growled at I felt the warm blood rush into my mouth. Instinct took over and I drained the creature of it's life. I sat and drank from the deer until I could feel my monster subsiding to a dark place, where I could no longer feel it's presence. I was content.

It was then that I realized the enormity of what had just happened.

My normal vampire senses had returned, I was no longer controlled by my thirst.

I looked down and in my hands was a deer. A living deer. Just a few days ago I had seen some in Charlie's backyard and now I was feeding from them.

Slowly I backed away from the animal, my eyes wide with fear. What had I just done?

I kept creeping away from the now lifeless deer, fearing myself more and more. What had I become? This wasn't like me.

The old Bella would have never dreamed of harming an animal. Now this new model of Bella had just hunted an innocent creature down for its blood in less than three minutes.

The new Bella had stripped it of its life. The new Bella had seen it as worthless, only useful for it's blood.

Once I was far enough away from the deer for my liking, I curled in a ball and put my head down on my knees. I closed my eyes and wished for once in my life that I could cry. I knew that this would be one of the few occasions when I would miss the ability to cry.

"Bella?"Alice called out to me softly and by my new hearing abilities, I could tell that she was about six feet to my left, being followed closely by Jasper and Emmett. "Are you alright?"

I shook my head.

"You did wonderful. Spectacular, even." Jasper said quietly.

I shook my head again.

"What's wrong, Bella?" Alice asked, sitting beside me.

"I'm a monster," my voice muffled by my knees.

I felt the arms of Emmett, Jasper and Alice around me at once.

"Bella," she whispered. "You're not a monster. This is normal. Everyone feels this way their first time."

"Do they?" I said through clenched teeth. "I don't think that anyone could feel the way that I do right now."

"Let me through," his voice was clear and brisk. I felt everyone remove their arms from around me as Edward picked me up in his own arms.

"Bella, my love. You are not alone in the way that you feel. I promise you that. And I'm sorry. I should have been right there for you."

"Don't apologize, Edward. She did fine," Emmett said softly-well, as soft as Emmett's voice can get.

"She did more than fine, I would say. I haven't seen a newborn perform that spectacularly since, well. It's been a long time," Carlisle said. He then looked around. "Now, you should take her back to the house while Emmett, Alice, Jasper and I hunt. Then there are some more matters that we need to take care of."

Edward nodded and turned in what was probably the direction of his house and got in the stance to run, holding me in his arms tight to his chest as the others ran away to hunt.

"No, Edward," I protested, squirming at the same time. "I can run. I'm capable of it."

He looked down at me, eyes smoldering black.

"I know you are, love. It would just be easier for me to carry you."

"No," I repeated myself and he let me down. I looked back up at him. "You need to hunt."

He looked away. "I'm fine, Bella. You don't need to worry about me."

"I'll sit here. I see your eyes and how black they are. I'll wait for you right here."

This time it was his turn to protest.

"I can't let you do that."

"And why not?" I challenged.

He sighed and looked down at me, frowning.

"Because it's not safe. There are humans all around here. I can't have you sit here by yourself, unsupervised. What if  
something were to happen?"

"Nothing will happen. I'm determined. I'm capable of resisting." With that I sat on the ground, crossing my arms and legs.

He chuckled. "Silly Bella."

He kneeled beside me and kissed the top of my head, stroking my hair.

"Let's just go, love. Back to the house. I can go then, if you would like, once I know that you are supervised."

I looked down at the forest floor and thought for a moment.

"What is it?" He asked, genuinely concerned.

I shook my head.  


"Bella..."

"Why don't you trust me?" I interrupted, whispering to him very quietly.

He stopped stroking my hair instantly, for a moment and then resumed.

"Why would you ever think that I don't trust you?"

"Because, well..."

"You can tell me," he pressed.

"I'm always being 'supervised' and like, I'm not three years old again, back when Renee had to find a babysitter or a neighbor to watch me while she went off to different classes. And I'm not twelve either, when Renee would watch over me in Phoenix and Charlie wouldn't let me out of his sight once I reached Forks. So clearly there is something in me that people don't trust."

He immediately pulled me into his lap and hugged me, sighing.

"This wasn't the time or place that I wanted to explain it to you in real terms. Actually, I wanted Carlisle to do it," he started.

I waited patiently in his arms for the response.

"Bella, there is nothing in you to make people distrust you. In fact, it's the complete opposite. Your mother and Charlie and I all have something in common-our love for you. Not one of us doesn't not trust you, Bella. We just don't trust the other people in the outside world," he nuzzled his face into the hair by my cheek. "Don't you ever think that I wouldn't ever not trust you. I love you too much."

"But I still don't understand. Why would Renee and Charlie watch out for me like that if they trusted me so much. I mean, I know right from wrong and not to talk to strangers."

He sighed.

"That may be true, Bella. But I understand where they are coming from. If one of them were not careful like that and something happened to you, they would never forgive themselves. I feel the same way, as you know. You know that there are people in this world who don't care who you are. The ones looking for young girls to... well. They don't care what your name is or if you can count by two's or speak forty different languages. If they get near enough, they will hurt you. Or even worse. It's just... your parents do that to protect you from those people, so that you are never harmed in your life. Now that they can no longer provide that protection, it's up to me to carry it on. If you were harmed, Bella, I don't think 

you can even begin to comprehend what that would do to me, knowing that I could have prevented it."

I sat there in silence in his arms, digesting his words.

"Still. I am capable of sitting here by myself while you run off for a few minutes.

He shook his head, chuckling.

"Always one to challenge a situation, aren't you?"

I scowled

"Just answer the question."

"To tell you the truth, this is what I wanted Carlisle to explain to you, but. I guess I'll do."

I turned in his lap to look into his eyes.

"You see, you are a newborn. Very new, I might add. And you're going to have severe bloodlust for human blood. It might not have hit you yet, since you're only a few hours old, but it will. And when it does," he growled lightly. "If I'm not there, or if someone else isn't there, there is no telling what might possibly happen. And I would hate to see a decrease in the population of Forks brought on by you. It would only make me feel guilty, knowing I could have-should have stopped it from happening."

"I don't feel that."

"Like I said, you're only a few hours old. And when that urge catches up to you, I don't want to have left you alone somewhere in a forest, waiting for me to hunt. It's not right. Jasper would be the ideal person to talk to, Bells. You know that he had a tough time with this. He could...explain. Some things to you."

I nodded.

"Now, enough chit chat. We've got to get back to the house. Esme and Rose must be wondering where we are."  
He stood up at the same time I did and held out his arms to carry me. I refused and his expression saddened.

"Please, Bella. I know that you can run with me and do all sorts of things that you couldn't do before, but I'm going to miss my vulnerable, human Bella."

I cringed at the word 'vulnerable'.

"Just let me take care of you. You can hold on to my back if you'd like. For old times, sake, please."

His expression alone was enough to convince me. I smiled and he immediately scooped me up in his arms, kissing my  
forehead and ran to the house.

To no one's surprise, Esme and Rosalie were sitting, waiting for us on the front porch of the house. As soon as we were within eyesight, they came running towards us and Edward put me down beside him, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"Bella, are you alright?" Esme asked with the most motherly look on her face. "We heard it went well."

"How did you..." I started and Rosalie interrupted.

"Carlisle phoned to tell us that you would be on your way back. Took you long enough." She eyed us suspiciously.

"Nothing happened, Rose. We just talked about some things." Edward answered her silent thoughts.

"Well, I'm so glad!" Esme explained. She took my hand and led Edward and I into the house and sat on the couch. "Now we just have to wait for the others and then we can start to figure things out."

She looked pointedly at Edward and I knew she was telling him something through her thoughts.

Rosalie came inside and sat on the loveseat across the room and began filing her nails.

"No." Edward said, breaking the silence. "We won't take part. This has nothing to do with it."

Esme shrugged. "Unfortunately, that's what they think and I don't know if there will be any convincing them otherwise."

I looked up at Edward.

"What is it?"

"This has nothing to do with them," he growled. "It's not part of it. We can't."

"We can't do what?" I demanded, my voice growing louder.

"Relax, Bella. Clearly he's not going to tell you right now, so you might as well chill out until the rest get back and we have a family meeting." Rosalie said to me, her eyes glistening at the word 'family.'

I choked on what I was saying.

"F. Family?"

Edward looked at me with an odd expression.

"Of course, Bells."

"Bella, you have been a part of our family ever since you first walked through that front door with Edward all those years ago," Esme patted my hair and looked towards the back kitchen door as it swung open with a bang.

"Filthy werewolves!" Emmett shouted as he stormed into the room.

"Emmett. Take a breather." Rosalie instructed him.

He sat beside her, fuming.

"They can't do that," Jasper said to no one in particular, sitting on the floor.

"This makes me so angry. Especially because I can't see it," Alice grumbled, sitting on the floor next to him.

"We need a strategy, any ideas?" Carlisle asked everyone and they all began thinking.

"I'm sorry..." I started to say and everyone looked at me.

"Whatever are you sorry for?" Esme asked.

"I must be missing something...what is going on?" I looked at everyone, who shifted their eyes towards Carlisle, as though they wanted him to explain what the problem was.

"Isn't it obvious, Bella?" Emmett asked, his voice still rather loud.

"Now now. There's no need to shout," Edward said to him.

I shook my head.

"Well, it's clearly not obvious to me, so someone had better tell me," I said.

"It's the werewolves," Jasper started. I frowned, not understanding. He continued. "They believe that our changing you has broken the treaty."  


"Meaning...?"

Rosalie sighed and kept looking at her nails.

"I thought you told her."

"I did," Edward answered, kissing my forehead. "But you know what it's like. You couldn't remember a lot of your human life so soon after changing." He looked directly into my eyes before speaking. "Meaning that they want revenge. They believe that the treaty no longer exists. They are, in a sense after us."

My jaw dropped and my eyes widened with fear as I registered this new information.

**Reviews of all kinds are welcome and appreciated!**


	4. Dancing With Wolves

**A/N: I thought I'd put another chapter up before I go away for the long weekend. For the record, I have ten chapters of this story; I'm just taking my time putting them up here so I can look over them one last time. I posted them in other places and didn't really edit them, so this time I want them to be perfect! :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight and I do not make any profit off of this fic. All characters belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer.**

"Bella?"

I heard him call my name, but I tuned it out as I tried to figure out what they meant by getting revenge. I wracked my brain for any notion of what this 'revenge' might be. I also wondered what exactly I had to do with all of this. I continued to look as if I was in fear while I tried to remember, eventually giving up in frustration.

I felt someone grab my face with two hands.

"Bella?"

I refocused and looked Edward in the eyes.

"Yes?"

"What's wrong? You look scared of something. There's nothing to worry about."

I closed my eyes.

"I can't remember," I said, opening them again.

Instantly, his eyes were concerned and filled with worry.

"You can't remember what, love?"

I ran a hand through his hair and concentrated on only looking into his eyes.

"I can't remember what this treaty is, or what exactly I have to do with it," I admitted.

A sad smile crept onto his face as he pulled me into a hug.

"I'm sorry," I said to the rest of his family over his shoulder.

"Don't be sorry," Alice said. "Human memories don't all come back at once."

Edward pulled out of the hug to nod at me while stroking my hair.

"Then why could I remember things about Renee and Charlie earlier, but not this?" I asked.

Carlisle answered me right away.

"They gradually come back, just not all at once, Bella."

Carlisle then looked directly at Edward who shook his head ever so gently.

"You're a part of the treaty because we were not supposed to harm any humans. So the wolves think that when Edward changed you into one of us, he broke it," Jasper finally explained.

"Oh," I said, leaning back into the couch.

"Don't worry, Bella. Nothing will happen," Esme said.

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

Just then Edward stiffened and turned slowly to look out the front windows.

"What is it, Edward?" Emmett asked, standing up.

"Sit down," Edward replied. "It's Sam Uley. He's in the trees and wants to meet with us. All of us, including Bella." He looked over at me grimly.

"When and where?" Carlisle inquired.

"Now, in the field where we play baseball," he replied, still only looking at me. "Alice?"

She understood and closed her eyes.

"I can't see us while we're with them, obviously, but I can see all eight of us coming back," she replied, standing up and pulling Jasper to his feet.

"Everything will be fine," Esme said, touching Edward's shoulder as she, Carlisle, Rosalie and Emmett joined Alice and Jasper at the door. Edward sighed and got up as I followed him.

He started shaking his head and looked right at Alice as she bit her lip, looking back at him. I knew that these silent conversations were something I would have to get used to.

Everyone filed out the door and started running. Edward took my hand and we followed after them.

"Edward, what is going on?" I asked him and he stopped running and walked instead, still holding my hand.

"Bella, no matter what happens here tonight, I will always love you and be there for you."

"Okay?" I felt very confused as he said this.

He snaked an arm around my waist and we walked along, each of us caught up in our own thoughts.

Suddenly, he stopped at the edge of a clearing and whispered, "No matter what."

He then kissed me and a loud howl sounded from the other side of the trees.

"Let's go," he said still keeping his arm tightly wrapped around my waist.

As we stepped into the clearing there was a bit of a light breeze and an awful smell smothered me. I gagged immediately and bent over.

"Bella? Are you okay?" Edward asked, trying to pull me back upright.

"What _is_ that awful smell?" I asked and I heard something growl again.

Edward growled back before answering, "Werewolves."

I looked up and over at the group of people standing together rather tensely.

The six Cullens had all formed a straight line and were trying to appear relaxed while across from them stood eight men who towered over everyone. Seven of them were nervously looking at the Cullens while one of them was glaring at Edward and I. I frowned.

"Who's that?" I asked.

Edward stiffened and I frowned again, coughing.

"Don't breathe," he instructed me. "It helps to stop the stench."

The person looking at us growled and I held my breath.

We walked over to the group and one man stepped away from the other wolves towards Carlisle and nodded, not taking his eyes of him. Instantly, in the place where the two men on the end had stood, two 

gigantic wolves stood. I forgot I wasn't breathing and gasped, immediately gagging on the smell. Alice winked at me before looking at the lone man and Carlisle.

"What is your intent on this meeting, Sam?" Carlisle asked.

"You broke the treaty," he said simply, eyeing me.

Edward spoke up.

"I don't see how that could be possible," he said coldly.

The person standing to the right of Sam growled before speaking.

"You turned her into one of you. Now she's nothing more than a blood sucking leech."

"Jacob," the one named Sam said harshly and Jacob swore very loudly.

The sound of Jacob's voice had stirred something inside of me, but I couldn't recall it.

Sam continued.

"You have bitten a human. That was part of the treaty. You were not to bite a human."

"We never fed from any humans. Any decrease in the population of Forks was not caused by us. You know full well that we hunt in the ranges around here," Carlisle replied.

"You bit _her_," Jacob spat out.

"The treaty never specified that we weren't allowed to turn humans into vampires," Carlisle said, calmly. "It was also made long before we even fathomed turning a perfectly healthy human into one of us."

"You still had to bite her somehow," Sam rebutted. "As soon as your lips touched her neck, the treaty was broken."

"It wasn't her neck," Emmett challenged.

"Emmett," Rosalie warned as the two wolves on the ends growled.

"It doesn't matter where you bit her!" Jacob yelled out. "You bit her and she's not the same Bella anymore! She's damned to a life she doesn't deserve! She is missing out of a perfectly good _human_ life!  
She was happy! Now you've taken her away and turned her into a monster!" His face purpled.

I frowned and stepped towards him. Edward grabbed my hand.

"Bella, no."

I shook off his grip and stood in front of Jacob.

"I don't know who you think you are, but you _do not_ go around insulting me or my family like that."  
He clenched his teeth.

"You don't know who you think I am!? I'm JACOB BLACK! You're in love with me! How could you forget that!? And these... vampires are NOT your family! They've corrupted your mind!"

I took a deep breath.

"I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH YOU! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE!" I yelled at him. "Besides, how could I be in love with a stupid werewolf? The stench alone would kill me."

We glared at each other and his entire body began to shake.

"Jacob, calm down," Sam said to him.

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" Jacob roared. "LOOK AT WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO HER! There is _nothing_ that I would like to do more than rip her apart limb from limb and silence this vile creature she's become forever."

I took a wary step away from him.

"That's right, bloodsucker. Start running."

He shuddered again and in his place stood a gigantic russet coloured wolf, ready to pounce.

I jumped back and two things happened. I felt two strong hands scoop me up and run behind the rest of the Cullens, who had formed a circle around me, still facing the wolves. Jacob had also sprung towards me and collided in mid-air with three other huge wolves who brought him down. The four of them wrestled on the ground before managing to drag Jacob away into the forest.

Edward stood with me in his arms as Carlisle and Sam continued talking in hushed voices. Esme and Alice turned around to us.

"Bella," Esme whispered, stroking my hair. "Are you alright?"

I nodded.  


"I'm so sorry," Alice apologized. "I hate not being able to see wolves."

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault at all. Nobody got hurt, it's okay."

She sighed and half smiled at me while Esme touched my cheek, looking worried. We were then joined by Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie and Carlisle.

"We're leaving," Carlisle said, with finality in his tone of voice.

"When?" Edward asked.

"Ten o'clock tomorrow morning," Alice answered before kissing my cheek.

"Wait," I said, realizing what was meant by that. "We're leaving Forks?"

Carlisle nodded.

"We're going up to visit with the Denali coven until we figure out what to do."

Edward's body hardened.

"D... Denali?"

"Yes," Carlisle said.

"For how long?" Edward looked at Alice.

"A week."

"A week in Denali?"

Alice nodded.

"Isn't there anywhere else?"

"Why are you so opposed to Denali, Edward?" Emmett asked.

"I'm just thinking of Bella. There will be a lot of vampires crowded into that house... in such proximity to humans," he said.

"She'll be fine," Jasper replied. "We'll all be on the lookout for her. She'll be fine," he repeated, looking 

at me.

"Let's get out of here," Rosalie suggested. "I don't trust these woods with Jacob on the loose."

"We've got to get packing up anyways, we don't have much time," Esme replied, nodding.

We all ran back to the house and scattered as they began packing up. I found myself alone with Edward in his room as he was putting all his CDs into boxes.

I walked over and started helping him. He smiled at me, worriedly.

"You okay, Bella? I'm sorry that had to happen."

"It's alright, Edward. I'm fine. I'm just... confused."

"Why?"

I looked at him.

"Was I really in love with Jacob?"

He paused while thinking of an answer.

"Let's not talk about that right now."

"But..."

"I'll tell you, I promise. Later, though."

He kissed me softly on the lips. I sighed and pulled away.

"Alright, later then."

He nodded and we continued to work in silence.

**Reviews of all sorts are greatly appreciated! I promise! And happy Labour Day long weekend! : ) **


	5. Explanations

**A/N: Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews and thanks for reading my story! I really appreciate it! : ) Here's another chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic.**

Eventually all our personal belongings were packed up and were put in the trunks and empty seats of everyone's vehicles we were going to use to move out. I was standing in the garage and all of a sudden noticed that Edward was missing.

"Where's Edward?" I asked.

Emmett sighed. "He was _just_ here. We have to _go_."

"Quit whining, Emmett," Rosalie told him while she examined her nails, leaning against her car.  
Just then, the sounds of piano music drifted out of the house and I smiled weakly.

"He's saying goodbye," Esme said softly.

I walked out of the garage quietly and snuck up to the house. The front door was open and I leaned against the frame while watching him play.

He played with such passion and vigour, yet his music was sad and melancholic. I stood watching him until Alice and Jasper came up behind me.

"Bella, we have to get going," she whispered quietly.

"But he's..." I protested.

Jasper shushed me and Edward kept playing.  
"Let him finish," he said. "You two can come later."

I smiled weakly and nodded. "Alright."

"We'll see you up there, Bella," Alice said, hugging me tight. "Nothing bad will happen," she whispered. "I can see that much."

"Have a safe trip," Jasper said, hugging me after Alice.

"No _you_ have a safe trip, you're the one driving the motorcycle," I said.

He laughed lightly and ruffled my hair.  
"I'll be fine, Bella."He watched Edward for a second. "Take care of him."  


"I will."

"Alright, bye Bella," Alice said.

"See you."

"Bye guys," I whispered and turned back towards Edward.

I was mesmerized by watching him play. I had no memories of ever watching him play, so this was incredible to me.

"You can come sit with me, Bella," he said to me after a while.

I slowly made my way over to the piano bench and without missing a key, he patted the seat beside him, indicating that I should sit.

As I sat he began to play a new song. It seemed vaguely familiar to me. I listened to him play it.

"This is mine, isn't it?"

He looked over at me, surprised.  
"Yes, it is. It's your lullaby."

He continued playing a few bars.  
"You remember it?"

I shrugged.

"Not really. I remember the first few bars had some significance to me. I just didn't remember it was my lullaby."

He nodded and I could tell the song was winding down.

"Play it again," I urged him.

He smiled crookedly and nodded, starting over.

This time when he played it, I closed my eyes, re-memorizing each note of the piece, the rise and fall of the melody and each time his feet touched the pedals.

Eventually the song came to an end, the last note ringing crystal clear in the empty house.  


"Bella?"

I opened my eyes and looked at him.  
"Yes, Edward?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For letting me play one last time. I needed to bring some finality to this."

"You're welcome. But love, you'll play again. We'll be back here in no time, there's no need to be sad."

"Bella, we can't ever come back here."

His words hung in the air.  
"What do you mean?"

"That's why we're leaving. It's what's best. You saw Jacob earlier. We can't stay here without a fight. Without killing off every last werewolf."

I looked away in silence.

"I'm sorry, but it's..."

Something occurred to me just then.  
"What does Charlie think happened to me?" I interrupted him.

"Charlie...well. He thinks you died. Alice fabricated enough evidence that he couldn't even question it," he answered grimly.

"How did I 'die'?" I asked quietly

He sighed.  
"They pulled your truck out of the water at First Beach in La Push. She made it look as if you were hit by another car and plunged off the top of the cliff. She even planted a broken car up there and pushed your truck over when she knew people were looking. Everyone believes that you drowned."

I sat in silence as he continued.

"We all went over and gave him our condolences once Alice saw that he was home. I went over later 

and acted the most distraught. In truth, I was so worried sick about you that I wasn't really acting at all." He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. "I had left you screaming in pain with Alice and Esme by your side to go over."

"How is Charlie?" I whispered.

"He's...not doing so well. He hasn't been out of the house much. Your mother and Phil are flying in in a few hours. Your funeral is tomorrow," he explained.

"Another reason to get me out of here?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"Was he mad at you when you went over?"

"No. He didn't believe that I had any part in it. He knew you were supposed to be 'going to see Jacob alone'. In fact, when I went over there, he gave me a hug and cried into my shoulder. He even apologized to me for being so harsh and said that no one deserves to lose their soul mate so early in life and in marriage."

I closed my eyes and covered my face in a poor attempt to hold back the tears that would never fall. He pulled me into his lap and cradled me.

"I'm sorry. I should have waited to tell you all that."

"No, it's fine Edward. I'm glad I know. I just wish I could see them," I whispered.

His grip tightened.  
"No, Bella. Absolutely not."

"I know that. It doesn't stop me from wishing that I could."

He sighed.  
"You're tearing me apart. The one thing you wish for in this world and I can't even give it to you."

"I know."

I sat in silence for awhile.

"What are you thinking?"

"Isn't there a way? What if we just peered in the windows?"  


"No. It's too dangerous anyways. He can't see my car in the street either. I...told him I was...moving. That I couldn't live here without you. I told him I wasn't even going to your funeral."

I grimaced.

"What, love?"

"So if I had actually died, you wouldn't have gone to my funeral?"

"That's an entirely different situation! Of course I would have. I would have played the part of the grieving widower who never sheds a tear and then caught the next flight to Italy. I would be re-united with you in the next life faster than you could say 'vampire'."

I buried my head in his shoulder.  
"What if we went to the funeral? We could hide behind a gravestone and watch them."

"No way, Bella. Never. Too many humans in a close proximity. How well do you think that would go over if you showed up at your own funeral and killed everyone in attendance, including your mother, father and step-father? Besides, we can't stay here that long."

I sighed in defeat.  
"You're right."

He looked down at me, surprised.

"What?" I asked.

"You're giving up without a fight? How unlike you."

"Everything you're saying makes perfect sense. And I don't want to hurt any humans, especially Renee or Charlie or Phil."

He kissed my forehead and then my lips before resting his chin on the top of my head.  
"I love you, Bella Cullen. And I'm sorry it has to be this way."

"I love you too, Edward Cullen. Don't be sorry, it can't be helped."

I thought about it for a minute.  
"Can _you_ go? Just to take a look and check up on him," I turned to look him in the eyes. "Please."

He touched my cheek.  


"You're breaking my heart, you know that? But I can't, love. I can't leave you here to go and I can't take you with me right now. It's not safe. We're risking everything right now by simply sitting in this house, it's after ten." He removed his hand from my face and replaced it with his lips. "But we can come back, years from now. I can promise you that much. We will come back."

I looked up at him, studying his face. He half smiled at me.

"We should get going then," I whispered.

He sighed and nodded.

Slowly I stood up beside him as he rose to his feet also. Together, we took one last look around before he closed the lid on the keys of the piano with finality. I took his hand and squeezed it as we walked out of the house for the last time, closing the door behind us.

Once we had been in the car and driving for a few hours, I finally confronted him.  
"Was I really in love with Jacob?"

He closed his eyes and didn't say anything.

"Edward, you promised you would tell me."

"I know, Bella," he paused before speaking. "You...you were in love with Jacob. It pains me to say that, but you were. So much in love that I was worried I might lose you to him. But I had to let you see him; he was a very large part of your life."

I thought about it.  
"How could I be in love with someone that I can't stand?"

"You mean the smell?"

"Part of it."

"When you were human, he smelled like a normal boy to you. As a vampire, of course he smells awful, all enemies smell horrible."

"But smell aside, part of me just hated him so much. I didn't want to stand near him at all."

Edward nodded and I continued.  
"Another part of me, I guess my human instincts or something, wanted to run into his arms and hold him," I shuddered.

Edward clenched his teeth.  
"So why didn't you? Clearly you still love him," he spat out.

"I could never love him."

"You do though."

"No, I don't."

"Then why would you want to hold onto him? He's your sworn enemy now!" he sighed. "I guess I should have seen this coming."

I remembered something then.  
"That's what you meant when you said you'd always love me no matter what, right? You thought I would go back to that...that, _dog_ didn't you?"

He nodded curtly.

"I could never do that," I whispered.

"But you wanted to, you said it yourself."

I sighed.

"Edward, what I felt towards Jacob lasted about a tenth of a second. The rest of the time we were there, I was using all of my self control to not run up to him and rip every inch of his skin from his bones and grind them up. Not to mention tear out his voice box. His voice is irritating." I looked away. "You have no idea."

We sat in silence for awhile before he spoke again.  
"You have more control than I give you credit for, considering you're less than a day old."

"Thank you?"

He stared straight ahead at the road.

"Edward, how could you think that I would ever leave you?"

"I...I don't know. I just always worry whenever Jacob Black is involved. I never know what could happen and it scares me. To think that I could lose you..." he shook his head.

"It would never happen," I assured him and he shook his head again.  


"You don't know that. One day, years from now, someone could cross your path and you might fall in love with them and leave. You don't know what could happen."

"Edward. That is not going to happen, ever. I love you and only you. That's how it's going to be, forever. I have never loved anyone else the way I love you. You complete me. If anything, I'm worried that _you_ will leave _me_."

He looked over at me. "What?!"

"Every day, every minute, I worry that I'm not good enough for you. That another gorgeous vampire will come around and try and lure you away from me and you'll leave."

"Oh, Bella," he rubbed a hand up and down my back. "That would never happen. You are my everything. Never doubt that. Of course you are good enough for me, in fact, you're too good for me."

I shook my head.

"Sure you are. You accepted me for who I was a long time ago. I don't deserve that. I was damned to this life and you didn't even run screaming once you figured out what I was."

"So? You hung around with me when I was human... what vampire does that?"

"That's a conversation for another time," he answered simply.

I shrugged.  
"Fine."

"Seriously, Bella. Nothing could take me away from you. I'm too selfish and I love you too much. Absolutely nothing in this world."

I sighed and nodded.

"I guess this would be the part when I tell you about Tanya, then," he said, frowning.

"Who's Tanya?" I asked.

"She's part of this coven we're going to stay with and the main reason why I don't want to take you up there."

I looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

He sighed.

"For years Tanya has been trying to...seduce...me. She's deluded herself into thinking that I'm playing hard to get with her. Which is totally not true," he added quickly. "I have never had feelings for Tanya, she's like my cousin or something."

"So she'll be angry about us?"

"Probably," he shrugged. "I mean, she _knows_. We invited her to the wedding; it was her decision to not show up. Esme and Carlisle were going to try and get there first to sort of reiterate that we are the real deal, so to say. But I doubt it will sink in until she actually sees you and I."

"What will she do?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "Don't worry, though. I won't let her harm you in any way. We'll leave early, if we have to."

I nodded and looked out the window as the scenery flew by.

"Bella, are you alright?"

I nodded.

"Don't worry about Tanya, it'll be just fine."

"I can't help it. She's the competition."

"She is _not_ competition. My heart belongs to you and only you. It always has and it always will."

"You said that before we even got together she would try to get you and..."

"You don't know how many times I have turned her down, Bella," he interrupted. "_I_ can't even remember, I've lost count over the years."

"But what if she doesn't give up?"

He slowed down as the border patrol came into view.

"There's this little court document called a restraining order. I wouldn't hesitate to get one."

I looked at the booth ahead of us as we stopped two cars back from it.

"Really?"

"Yes, Bella. You are my life now and forever. Nothing matters more to me than you and your safety. Never forget that."

We moved up a car length.

"But that's serious. A restraining order?"

"Bella, I'm seriously in love with you, don't you get that? I won't let anyone or anything take away, or _try_ to take away what we have."

We moved up again and Edward talked to the officer while I looked on ahead. Soon we were on our way. He leaned over and kissed me.

"Welcome to Canada, Bells," he said, smiling.

"I've never been here before," I said, looking out the windshield.

He chuckled.  
"Well, in about four hours we'll be at the Alaska border, so enjoy it now."

"Can't we stay here and explore?"

He frowned and shook his head.  
"Too many humans."

I protested.  
"We don't have to stay right in the city center. We can stay somewhere out of the way, just for a few hours even. Your family won't mind."

"They're your family too, you know. You married into it," he smiled and glanced at his mother's ring on my left hand.

"I know. But who knows when we'll be back here again? Personally, I wouldn't come back this far West until the wolves are dead and gone, just in case, and we're here now, so why not?"

"Bella, we would be taking a huge risk. If you lost control..."

I turned and looked him in the eyes.

"Edward. I've been fine so far. If you're so worried, you can handcuff yourself to me or something if 

you'd like, it doesn't matter to me."

He smiled and raised an eyebrow at me.

"I don't know...I _really_ like the sound of you being handcuffed to me...think of what we could do..."

If I could still blush anymore, I would have been crimson. I continued.

"That's not the point."

"Don't be embarrassed, Bella. We both know we want that."

I sighed and smiled.

"I'm not arguing with you about that. You already know that you're right."

He chuckled.

"I just want to see a bit of the world while it's safe to be here for now. While we're allowed to be here."

He sighed.  
"Bella, you'll be the death of me, I swear."

I frowned. "Please?"

"Alright, but we go somewhere away from humans. I'm not stupid. There's no way that we can waltz into downtown Vancouver right now."

I nodded. "Okay."

He smiled and squeezed my hand.

"Thank you," I whispered.

He nodded and smiled before kissing my ring finger and drove on a little further before stopping.

**Reviews of all sorts are greatly appreciated! Good luck to everyone starting school tomorrow! : )**


	6. Scare

**A/N: I'm having horrible writer's cramp for Chapter Eleven right now, but lucky for you wonderful readers I've already got this one and the next few done! : ) Thanks so much for taking the time to read my story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic.**

He parked the car and I sat looking out the windshield and he sat there looking at me. I could feel his eyes scrutinizing my every move; every eye movement, every smile, every reaction to the scenery around me. To be quite honest, the scenery was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen.

I got out of the car and leaned against the front bumper, lightly, so I didn't damage it, with my hands resting behind me on the hood. Edward was beside me in under a second.

He had parked on a cliff that overlooked the city of Vancouver and in the background of this wondrous view, the Rocky Mountains loomed, huge and mysterious. The entire view would have been breathtaking - if I actually needed to breathe air.

"It's gorgeous," I breathed.

He chuckled. "It's nowhere near as gorgeous as you are, though."

He stepped in front of me and brushed my cheek with the back of his hand and traced the same pattern that he had done so many years ago outside the Forks High School gym. "Nothing in this entire world could be anywhere near as gorgeous as you are."

"Edward-"

He cut me off by pressing his lips to mine gently.

Then my newborn instincts took over. I immediately grabbed a hold of the back of his head and pulled him closer while deepening the kiss. He obliged to my actions and wrapped both his arms around my back, pulling me closer to him. we kept kissing without stopping to breathe, of course, and just as I was starting to think of other things we could possibly do, he smiled into my mouth and pulled away.

"Edward," I groaned.

"Bella, Bella, Bella," he said, kissing my forehead. "You have no idea how much it kills me to deny myself the taste of you like that, but right now is neither the time nor the place."

"Soon?" I asked.

He kissed the tip of my nose.

"Soon, I promise."

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?"

"Are you sure? If I know you right, you're just as desperate as I am right now."

He chuckled and pulled me into a hug.

"Of course I'm sure. I can't stay away from you, Bella." He pressed his lips into my hair and murmured, "You have no idea what I want to do to you when we're alone. I've been planning it."

I smirked. "How unlike you to be thinking about these things, Edward."

He shrugged. "I needed to do something to pass the time while you slept when you were still human."

My jaw dropped suddenly in shock and he laughed.

"Bella, you seem to forget that underneath it all, I am only a man," he frowned. "A seventeen year old man at that."

"With raging teenage hormones?" I asked.

This time it was his turn to be shocked.

"Bella!"

I giggled. "I'm only teasing you."  


He smiled and I looked him in the eyes.

"And Edward? I know that underneath it all, you're all man."

He groaned. "If only we weren't in such a public place right now..."

He shook his head and I grinned.

"Yes? Go on," I egged him on innocently.

He smiled my favorite crooked smile.

"Well, for one thing, you wouldn't be wearing that sweater anymore."

I tilted my head to the side. "Just the sweater?"

He grinned wickedly.

"Well, I could think of a few other things that would go. Like your shirt...and... your jeans..."

"Oh, really?" I kissed his chin lightly.

"Really."

He was leaning down to kiss me when I was overwhelmed by the most delicious smell ever. I held up a hand and held his face away from mine, closed my eyes and breathed it in, letting the smell take over me.

"Bella?"

I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was frowning.

"Bella, what is it?"

I ignored him and concentrated on my smell. It smelled vaguely like grapefruit and lemons; like shampoo. I heart its heavy footfalls and its wheezing, gasping breathing.

"It smells so good," I commented to myself.

"What do you mean?"

I bolted.

It was surprisingly easy to break away from him. I had expected a fight and I expected to have to physically remove myself from his arms. I knew that he wouldn't be that far behind me though. Even if I did have newborn abilities, Edward was sure to be faster.

I concentrated on my smell. It was getting closer. I licked my lips.

Just then, something crashed into my side, knocking me over and making a horrible noise like a dump truck colliding with a solid concrete wall. We tumbled on the ground and came to a halt.

Bella, let's go. We have to leave now."

His arms were wrapped around me tight and he was lying on top of me, pinning my body underneath his.

"No," I growled. "I need it, now."

Unfortunately for Edward, he wasn't planning on me to be stronger than him, but I threw him off of me with both my hands, sending him flying. I jumped up and ran after the smell again, knowing that I only had mere seconds to find the source before Edward found me again.

I needed just another minute and I would be sinking my teeth into its flesh and drinking its fresh, hot blood. The venom in my mouth started to pool.

Again, true to my predictions, Edward's body crashed into mine at top speed three seconds later, this time from behind. He pinned me face down into the forest floor. I felt his entire body struggling to hold me down.

"Bella," he whispered. "You don't want it. You really don't."

I growled and hissed and tried to get up, but he slammed my body forcefully into the ground.

"Bella," he whispered again. "Bella, come back to me. It's not worth it."

I growled again.

"Please...I...I... can get you something better, something more delicious."

He had peaked my interest.

"But I want it."

"No, no you don't. Trust me, it doesn't taste that good."

"How would you know?"

He spoke through clenched teeth. "I've had it before, it's not worth the trouble. But I have something better," he continued. "You'll love it, I promise."

"Where is it?"

"I'll take you there right now."

I thought about it. My wonderful smell was fading.

"Alright."

He warily stood, without letting go of me, picked me up and ran.

As he ran with me in his arms, my head began to clear and I returned to my 'normal' vampires self.

"Oh no," I groaned as his silver Volvo came into view.

"What?" he asked while placing me in my seat and running around to get in the other side.

"Oh no! That was a human, wasn't it?"

He didn't answer, but started the car and threw it into reverse, speeding away from our spot.

"Oh, it was, wasn't it?" I cried out.

He nodded curtly and I looked around.

"Let me guess, there's nothing special for me here, is there?"

He sighed and shook his head.

"No, there isn't; but if you'll hand on just a few more minutes, we'll stop and you can hunt."

"I don't need to hunt," I replied.

"Bella," he held my hand. "You just tried to attack a human, love. Besides, look at your eyes."

I looked in the mirror in the sun flap and they were pitch black and bloodshot. I closed them and leaned my head back against the headrest.

"I'm so ashamed of myself," I whispered.

"Why, Bells?"

"How could I be so stupid and careless?" I held my head in both my hands and shook it.

"You are not stupid. Never think that of yourself. You're not careless either. What happened was... part of being immortal - part of being a vampire."

I closed my eyes and was silent as he drove on.

After a few minutes, Edward broke the silence between us as he slowed the car to a stop.

"Come on, let's hunt," he said, getting out of the car and rushing to my side and opening my door.

"Bella?" he questioned, frowning as I remained sitting in his car, unable to move out of horror.

"Bella?" he asked again, crouching down beside me, his voice becoming more panicked.  


"What's wrong Bella? Talk to me, say anything."

I stayed still with my hands still covering my face.

"Bella," he whispered, taking my hands off my face and holding them to his chest in one of his. He took his free hand and gently turned my face towards his.

"Bella, look at me. Please," he begged.

Very reluctantly I looked up at his face. He looked pained and I'm sure that if he could have, he would be crying.

"Tell me what you are thinking," he said to me softly, while brushing his thumb over my cheek.

I looked into his pleading eyes.

"I hate myself," I said to him so soft and low that a normal person would not have been able to hear me.

He did though.

His expression changed in under a second. Shock registered across his face before he spoke. "Why on earth would you hate yourself?"

I took a deep, unneeded breath.

"They were just innocent people back there, out for a hike or something. And like...when I went after them, I only thought of the as food." I looked away. "Had you not been there, I ... I don't what I would have done. I... I would have been a," I stopped. "A murderer," I whispered.

In an instant I was lifted out of the car and swept up into Edward's arms. He held me close and rested his chin on the top of my head.

"Don't ever hate yourself," he said, his voice low and raspy. "You have absolutely no reason to at all."

"But those people," I objected. "They could have been d... dead because of me." I shook my head before burying it in his chest and wrapping my arms around him. "If you weren't there, I can't imagine what would have happened."

"Don't think about what could have happened, because I was there and nothing did happen. Don't dwell on it either. This happens to the best of us, love." He kissed my head before hugging me tighter.

I sighed. "That doesn't change how I feel about what happened."

"Bella, stop beating yourself up about it. Those humans have nothing to worry about because they had no idea. They're fine. No one was hurt, it's okay. Trust me. We all get the urge to hunt down a few humans ever once in awhile, but it's something you just have to learn to suppress."

I grimaced and immediately felt guilty about throwing him off of me, but I still asked, "What if it doesn't work on me?"

"Then luckily for you, I don't intend on ever letting you get too far from me for the rest of eternity. I'll help you."

"You won't mind?"

"Of course not! I've told you before, I'm a selfish creature. I'll do anything to keep you by my side."

I hugged him tighter and then the most amazing animal smell overwhelmed me. I breathed it in deeply as I felt him tense up.

"What is that?" I asked, letting him slowly go.

"Mountain lion," he growled, looking in its direction.

I followed his gaze and looked back up at him. He saw me look towards it and smiled crookedly.

"Not you too," he said, jokingly before his eyes narrowed. "It's mine."

"We'll see," I said to him while running towards the animal, ready to take it down.

**Reviews of every kind are greatly appreciated! I take them all to the heart! : )**


	7. Denali

**A/N: Thanks to everyone for reading my story! I love writing them, so I hope that you enjoy reading them! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic.**

Edward pulled up in front of the house and put the car in park, slowly turning off the car.  
"Well," he said. "We're here."  
I nodded, looking over at him, trying to judge his reaction.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

He growled in warning before looking at me.

"Great, just perfect."

"We can go and come back later, if you'd like," I suggested.

He shook his head.

"Why run from the inevitable," he smiled a little. "It'll be fine. Carlisle and Esme warned her at least, and Eleazar, Carmen, Kate and Irina told her as well."

He sat there for a half a minute.

"Let's go," he said and got out of the car. I followed suit and stood beside him. He reached out and held my hand tightly.

"Told you," Alice's voice carried over to us from the front door. "15 seconds from when they pulled up."

"Alice, you have no idea how annoying that is," Emmett said as he ran up to us to pull both Edward and I into a hug.

Edward never let go of my hand.

"Nice to see you too, Emm," he said.

"What's so annoying?" I asked Emmett.

He stepped away rolling his eyes.

"She saw that you would get out of the car 15 seconds after you pulled up. So as soon as your little silver number stopped moving, she began counting down."

"And I was dead on, as usual," Alice said, smiling as she hugged me and then Edward.

She looked at him pointedly and Edward shook his head infinitesimally, pulling me closer and moving his hand so it was around my waist.

Just then I noticed that Edward tensed up and held me tightly to him. I looked over Alice's head to see the Denali coven coming out of their house. I recognized Carmen, Kate Irina and Eleazar, but not the fifth one, the strawberry blonde. By process of elimination, I figured she was Tanya. They all walked over to us and stopped.

"Welcome to our home, Bella and Edward," Carmen said, hugging us both.

"Thank you," Edward replied.

"It's so nice to see you again," Kate said as she too hugged us.

"It's nice to see you all again too," I said to her, lightly.

"My, my, Bella. How you have changed," Eleazar remarked, taking in my new body.

I smiled. "That's what becoming immortal does to you, I suppose," I joked and everyone laughed except Edward.

"Edward!" Tanya called out, even though she was two feet away from us.

She rushed towards him and threw her arms around Edward. The millisecond before their bodies connected, Edward turned, so all she could hug was his left shoulder. He looked down at me with an apologetic expression on his face and I smiled up at him encouragingly.

"It's so good to see you after all these years. I was just ecstatic when I heard that you were coming to stay with us. I've got everything all settled for you..." she chattered on, still hugging him.

Edward gently pried her off of him.

"I see that neither of us has changed one bit, Tanya," he said pointedly, his words containing a double meaning that she overlooked. "In fact, I don't believe that you've had the pleasure of meeting my wife, Bella."

He gestured towards me and Tanya looked me up and down, slightly shaking her head. Having Tanya, small, strawberry blonde, and of course, gorgeous as ever, look at me like that, clearly judging me, made me feel even more insecure about my relationship with Edward. Still, she politely stuck out her hand and I shook it for one tenth of a second.

She immediately turned back to Edward.

"Believe me, the pleasure's all mine," she said to him, seductively."

There was a bit of an awkward silence following that before Carlisle intervened.

"Erm. Edward, why don't you, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett show Bella around the area while Esme and I get to work," he suggested.

"Excellent idea!" squealed Alice as she took my right hand and started dragging both Edward and I away from the house.

"I'll race you," Emmett challenged Edward.

"Emmett, we don't even know where we're going," Edward pointed out.

"How about to that clearing by the ocean," Jasper suggested. "There's no way that any humans could possibly get in there."

Everyone laughed but me.

"You'll understand when we get there," Alice said.

With that, Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper took off, leaving the three of us behind.

"Come on, you guys. We can't walk forever," Alice complained.

I snickered. "Sure we could."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Not what I meant."

Edward glanced back at the house.

"I'm with Alice on this one, let's run."

We ran southwest through the forest, towards the crashing tides of the ocean that I could perfectly hear now, thanks to my newly attuned hearing. I came to a screeching halt at the base of a mountain. I looked ahead and Alice was already halfway up.

"No. Way," I said to no one in particular.

Edward stopped by my side.

"What's wrong, love?"

"We're not climbing that, are we?" I asked.

He nodded. "Jasper meant it when he said that no humans could possibly go there."

"Edward, I'm a clumsy vampire as it is! You honestly can't expect me to scale a full size mountain!"

Alice appeared at my side.

"Technically, Bella, we're not going all the way up. Just about three quarters of the way and then we circle around to the back where there's a neat clearing nestled between three mountains."

"You're all insane," I mumbled, though apparently Emmett could hear me from wherever he was, because we could hear his booming laugh echoing in the distance.

Edward also chuckled.

"It's really not that bad," he said.

I sighed.

"I'll carry you, if you want," Alice offered.

"Alice, no. You can't carry me up a mountain! I'd break you!" I objected.

"You would not. I'm strong," she said. "Look, it's either I take you, or Emmett drags his butt down here to get you. And I seriously doubt that you would want him to humiliate you with the story of how 'Bella was too scared to climb a mountain, so I went down and carried her up' for the rest of eternity."

I looked up at Edward for help, but he was just grinning stupidly at me. I started to roll my eyes, but before I got halfway through, Alice had grabbed me and slung me over her shoulder while running up the mountainside.

"Alice! Put me down this instant!" I yelled at her.

"Bella, relax. Everything's fine," she said, slapping my butt for extra emphasis.

"You keep two hands attached to me! You hear me? Two hands!" I screeched.

She laughed and sped up.

"I mean it Alice Brandon Whitlock Hale Cullen!" I threatened, trying to remember as many names of hers that I could.

Alice laughed her high-pitched laugh again.

"You forgot my middle name," she teased.

"Honestly Alice, I can't even think of it right now! You should be lucky I remembered that much!"

She stopped abruptly and put me down, her eyes lit with excitement.

"Are we there?" I asked, warily, trying to remember if we had turned yet.

"Nope," she said, smiling.

"Then what?" I asked.

"I wanted you to enjoy the view," she simply said, turning me so I could see.

Looking straight out, I could see the tops of the trees and some houses here and there between the mountain I was currently standing on and the next large one about 20 miles away. Looking down was a different story. It seemed incredibly far. It was then that I realized that I seemed to be floating. I looked at our feet and saw that the piece of rock we were standing on was only about three feet wide - just 

barely big enough for the two of us to stand on. The rock also only jutted out to about the arch of my feet, which was big enough for Alice's tiny feet to fit on, but not mine. Through the ballet flats I was wearing, I could feel that my toes were hanging dangerously over the edge of the mountain - dangerous for me, anyways. Goody, I thought.

"Alice, can vampires be afraid of heights?" I asked her while trying to peer over the edge without throwing myself off balance and tumbling down the mountain. That would be just fantastic.

She shrugged. "It's possible, I guess. Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that this vampire is," I replied, pointing to myself.

She giggled.

"Should we continue on, then?"

I nodded eagerly, looking down at her.

"Now you want to go up there," she shook her head. "You're one interesting creature, Bella Cullen."

"Just get me off this rock, Alice. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen."

She laughed again, picked me up and ran the rest of the way to where everyone else was gathered.

The clearing was surrounded by massive trees of which I couldn't remember the name of, and it was wide and open. About ten feet up on all three mountains was snow, but I didn't get cold like I would have done, had I have been human.

In the middle of the clearing, Rosalie, Jasper and Edward each sat on a log. The three logs were in a triangle formation surrounding a fire that Emmett was trying to stoke.

Alice placed me down gently and danced over to Jasper, who wrapped an arm around her as she sat down beside him with more grace than I could ever wish for.

"Bella!" Emmett called out. "Glad to see that you could join us! How was the trip up?"

I glared at him and started walking toward Edward. I passed by Emmett and he stood up, ruffling my hair.

"Hey!"

"Oh, come on. It wasn't a bad trip up, admit it," Emmett said, laughing.

"No, it wasn't," I admitted, removing his hand from my head. "Except for the part where Alice precariously balanced me over a cliff."

She rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't call it that, Bella. I would say it was more a broken piece of rock hanging out over nothing."

"Gee, thanks Alice," I said sarcastically continuing over to Edward. He opened his arms as I came closer and pulled me on to his lap.

I tried squirming out of his lap. "No, Edward. I'm too heavy for this."

His arms locked around me, holding me firmly in place.

"You are not 'too heavy' nor will you 'break me' as you told Alice before. Where is all of this coming from?"

"I'll tell you later," I promised.

"You haven't been hanging around Rosalie too much, have you?" he asked, jokingly.

"I heard that," Rosalie growled from the other side of the fire, trying hard not to smile.

Jasper sighed. "Isn't it wonderful up here?"

We all nodded in agreement.

"It's in a great location and the best part is that you can never get caught, right Emmett?" Rosalie said to him, suggestively.

Instead of a response, kissing noises were heard. Luckily, the fire obscured my view of them. I felt sorry for Alice and Jasper though.

"You guys..." Edward said, annoyed.

"Edward, get out of my head," Emmett replied.

He buried his face in the side of my neck. "I would if I could Emmett. Believe me."

We all sat and watched the fire and talked for about ten more minutes. Then Jasper and Alice wanted to go hunting up at the top of the mountain. I flat out refused their offer to join them. Emmett and Rosalie mysteriously disappeared into the surrounding trees.

"The least you can do is move further away," Edward called out to what appeared to be thin air, but I heard Rosalie's voice come from the trees about a half a mile away.

"What's it to you?" she demanded.

"It's everything to me," he said.

"Fine," she huffed.

"Are they gone?" I asked after a minute.

He hissed. "In broad daylight? You have a death wish," he said, probably to them.

I heard Emmett snarl.

"What are they doing?"

"You don't want to know," he replied, disgusted. I looked back at him and he swallowed tightly. "They're tumbling down the mountain...together."

"You're right," I said. "I don't want to know."

He laughed and listened for a moment.

"They're gone, finally. Be thankful that you didn't get the gift of hearing minds, Bella," he said and I laughed.

"Instead, you still can't hear me at all," I sighed.

"No," he agreed. "And it drives me crazy sometimes to not hear what you're thinking."

"You know, the rest of us normal people deal with it all the time," I joked.

"I know," he chuckled. "But in your case, it would help me out a lot. Like knowing what you meant by those comments earlier."

I didn't answer him and bit my lower lip.

"Bella?" he asked. "What did you mean by it?"

Again, I remained silent.

Edward removed his arms from their hold around me and picked me up, turning me completely around so I was facing him before setting me back down on his lap. I wrapped my legs around his torso and looked at him.

"I meant what I said earlier. I am too heavy and I don't know how you guys can just pick me up like that. I'm not a delicate little light human anymore. I can guarantee that the transformation changed that."

Edward looked horrified. "Absolutely not, Isabella Marie Cullen! How could you possibly think that? When I pick you up, and I'm sure Alice could vouch for this, it's like lifting a feather pillow. But that is besides the point! Why are you all of a sudden so insecure?"

I took a deep breath.

"I guess it was when I saw Tanya and everyone else. I mean, I saw other vampires at the wedding, I just didn't really get a chance to look at them, you know? But now that I've seen them all up close, especially Tanya, I can't compare to them."

"Tanya," he scoffed. "She's a witch most of the time - especially now that she didn't get her way. I'm not saying that she's a horrible person, it'll just take some time for her to get used to us."

"But still," I argued. "She's little, and blonde, and absolutely beautiful and tiny and just... you saw how she looked at me. Like she couldn't believe that you would go for someone like me. You don't know how often I get that look. Usually it doesn't really bother me, but this time, it hurt. A lot," I told him honestly.

He took my face in both of his hands and pressed his forehead to mine.

"Bella," he whispered. "Silly, Bella. Don't ever let other people's thoughts or words or actions get to you. They don't see you like I do. They don't get to experience firsthand the love I have for you. Never ever doubt that love. I have been waiting for a century for you, and just because someone doesn't agree with our relationship, it is not the basis for us to let this crumble. I've worked too hard to get to this point in my life, and let me tell you, every time I see you, I can't help but burst with happiness in every cell and every nerve ending in my body because being able to be with you and have you with me forever is the greatest gift ever. It was a long wait for me, but it was certainly well worth waiting for."

After he finished, I found that I believed him. I really and truly believed him. I moved myself as close to his body as I could get and wrapped both my arms around him, holding his perfectly chiselled body to my own. He sighed and wrapped his arms around me too, kissing the top of my head. I rested my head on his chest and as we sat there holding each other, I felt all my worries and doubts and insecurities vanish. For the first time in my life, I was incredibly sure about myself and about my relationship with Edward. It was wonderful.

**Reviews are a wonderful thing! If I could get at least five reviews, I will post the next chapter!! :) **


	8. Broken

**A/N: Alright, I know that people are reading this, and I would **_**really**_** appreciate some reviews. It makes me nervous whenever I post another chapter and there are no reviews for it. I would just like some, even if they're to say, 'this story sucks' or something. So please! I would really appreciate it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic.**

At first, the mention of staying in Denali for a whole week made it seem daunting and long, but in reality, I thought to myself, the time we spent there seemed to fly by. When we weren't out looking for a place to stay, Edward, Alice, Jasper and I spent a lot of time up in our mountain retreat. Rosalie and Emmett joined us the first few times we went there, but Edward soon banned them from coming with us, claiming that his mind had been tainted one too many times for his liking.

On our last scheduled day in Denali, Esme, Alice, Carlisle, Jasper and I went out looking one last time at a house big enough for everyone to live in. Edward, Rosalie and Emmett remained behind because they needed to hunt, and I didn't give it a second thought. We said our goodbyes in the morning and we all left in a hurry to make it back before nightfall. I had never seen the house, so when we arrived, some hours later, I was blown away. I stood before it, eyes wide in amazement.

The outside was a simple gray brick that covered the whole exterior and there was a wraparound porch that circled the whole house. It was two stories and very magnificent. It was nestled into a forest, in a remote part of Quebec, far away from any sort of civilization. In fact, there was no road into or out of the house, and no garage. Esme had mentioned to me that it was only used by snowmobilers who happened to stumble upon it, but in the last few years they believed it to be haunted, so now nobody comes here.

"You like it, Bella?" Alice asked, chuckling.

I nodded. "It's beautiful," I breathed.

Alice laughed again. "This is only the outside. Come on! I'll show you the inside!"

She pulled my hand and dragged me into the house behind her.

The inside was just as magnificent as the Forks house, I thought. It was wide and open and very modern. Directly in front of the door was a gigantic staircase that led up to the second floor, taking up a large part of the room The ceiling above the stairs went all the way up to the roof and there was a large skylight at the top, letting in a lot of light. On either side of the stairs was a wall with large, round arches in it, dividing the house in half yet making it seem large and open. To the right along the East wall, was a huge kitchen with a dining room attached to it. Along the West wall, to the left of the door was an area that would easily be large enough for Edward to put another piano in, I thought. I let Alice pull me 

around the staircase to the back of the house.

"This is the best part!" she laughed.

Behind the stairs was a large sitting area that looked out into the backyard. The entire North wall was made of glass with two large French doors that opened up to the yard. I smiled at Alice as she let go of my hand and threw the doors open wide.

"Look at the pool, Bells!" she squealed and jumped up and down.

Sure enough, just beyond the porch, there was a large pool sitting empty, but still looking pristine. The rest of the yard was beautifully landscaped and there was a patio big enough for a large table for us all to sit around and enjoy the outdoors. Just then something occurred to me.

"How come the house is so neat and clean if it hasn't been used in a long time?"

Esme looked at me sheepishly. "I might have possibly been coming out here ever since we found it and been cleaning it."

Carlisle shook his head and laughed.

"So I guess this is the house, then?" Jasper asked. "Seeing as how Esme is already trying to make it habitable for human use?"

"No!" Alice said. "Bella hasn't seen the upstairs yet. We can't make a decision until she sees it."

Everyone laughed.

"You think I'm kidding? I'm actually not," she said, seriously and we all sobered up pretty fast. She then took my hand once again, pulling me back towards the grand staircase.

Once we were up them, she began giving me a tour.

"This one just here," she gestured to a door directly in front of the stairs, "Is Carlisle and Esme's. It's the biggest," she explained, shrugging.

I made to open the door, but she tugged me away.

"There'll be tons of time to look through them all later, but for now, I just need to give you a quick tour so that we can get your vote."

"Alice," I said. "You already know that I love it."  


"Just humour me, Bella."

I sighed. "Alright."

She turned left down the hallway and pointed to a door on her right.

"That's mine and Jasper's future bathroom and closet," she said, pulling the door open a tiny crack. The room was significantly larger than my bedroom at Charlie's house.

"Alice, are you sure that all of your clothes are going to fit in there?" I asked, jokingly.

She playfully punched my shoulder. "Of course they are, silly! Now come on," she closed the door and opened one across the hall.

"This one is our bedroom. I picked it because it looks out over the front of the house," she nodded, matter-of-factly.

I pointed from Alice and Jasper's bedroom to their future closet/bathroom several times.

"Alice, how are you going to deal with having a closet across the hall from your room?"

"Bella, Bella, Bella. Of course that won't work! That's why right here," she gestured to the small space between the two rooms at the end of the hall, along the west wall, "We're going to build a wall and punch out two spaces here, and here," she pointed to the existing walls on either side of her, "And it's going to be a walkway from our bedroom to our closet! Wonderful, eh?!"

I shook my head. "Just wonderful, Alice."

"Oh, don't give me that, Bella. Come on."

She led me to the other side of the stairs and opened a door on the north wall just long enough for me to look in quickly.

"Rosalie and Emmett's room, and their future bathroom," she pointed to the door right next to theirs.  
"What kind of a house is built without and en suite bathroom in each room?" she asked, shaking her head and I tried not to laugh at her.

"Anyways, this is Carlisle's study," she pulled open a door on her right and I peeked in for a millisecond.  
"So, what do you think?" she asked excitedly.

"I think that it's wonderful and magnificent and awesome," I said, smiling.  


"But," she said, looking right in my eyes.

"But what?"

"Come on, Bella. Spit it out. There's a 'but' in there somewhere, I know you."

I looked away.

"Well, where are Edward and I supposed to live?"

She smiled.

"In through here, of course!" She pushed randomly on the wall and it swung open, revealing another set of stairs, leading up into what appeared to be a black abyss. I was shocked, because there was no handle or anything on the door, it was disguised well with the rest of the house. If I hadn't have known it was there, I would never have ever imagined there was a secret door in the house at all.

"Go on, take a look," she urged, pushing me lightly towards them.

I slowly ventured up them, but apparently my speed wasn't fast enough for Alice, because I felt her hand pushing me faster up the stairs and I laughed, shaking my head.

At the top of the stairs was a large, open room with slanted ceilings from the angle of the roof. There were skylights at even intervals all over the room, but even with them, it was a little dark.

"Well, what do you think?" she asked, bouncing on her heels with excitement. "I know it's nothing spectacular, but it's totally Edward. He loved this space when he first saw it."

I turned around and plastered a smile on my face.

"Alice, it's wonderful. I really love it!"

She clapped her hands, jumped up and threw her arms around me.

"Yay! I'm so happy! Now we just have to tell the others and before you know it we'll be moving in!"

She then ran down the stairs and I took one last look around before following her down and outside with the others.

It was decided that we would return to Denali and then start driving everything over to the house as soon as whatever odds and ends were at the Denali house was packed up again. Alice was ecstatic at 

the thought of moving in and getting a closet that was much larger than her old one, that she could not stop talking about it with Esme the whole way back to Alaska. Carlisle and Jasper were discussing the benefits of teaching themselves French most of the time. Carlisle believed that it would be worthwhile for the whole family to brush up on their French speaking, while Jasper argued that we wouldn't be likely to run into any humans being so far out in the bush that it wouldn't matter at all. I just hung back from the group and thought about the house.

I really, genuinely liked it, but a part of me couldn't get over the fact that Edward and I were going to be forced to live in an attic. Whenever I had thought about how Edward and I would spend our eternity together, I never imagined that it would be – or any part of it, really, be spent cooped up in an attic room while the rest of the Cullens sprawled out in their large rooms with en suite bathrooms. It wasn't really jealousy that I felt, for I could care less about a bathroom, it's not like we really need one anyways, and I care even less about a closet, I just couldn't bring myself to truly believe that Edward really loved that room when he first saw it. Even though Alice said that he loved it and all, it doesn't seem like a room that he would automatically go for. I mean, sure, Alice has been around him for longer than I have, so maybe she knows him a bit better than I do, but I still thought I knew him well enough. I eventually decided to not let it bother me, if Edward really loved the space, then I would love it too.

Once we got close to the house, Alice dashed ahead to find Rosalie and Emmett and tell them to come back so that we could start making our way across the country to our new house. Esme and Carlisle ran together and then went off to hunt a little before we started our long drive. Jasper waited until I caught up to him and fell into step with me.

"What's wrong, Bella?"

I immediately tried to look confused at his question.

"What do you mean, Jasper?"

"Come on, Bella. You can't fool me. I could sense your emotions the whole way back here. You're confused as to why you and Edward are living upstairs, aren't you?"

I widened my eyes and he chuckled.

"How did you know that?"

"It's taken years of practise at being able to sense others' emotions. That's beside the point, though. Are you alright?"

I didn't answer and instead slowed my pace to a walk.

"Bella," he stopped directly in front of me and placed his hands on my shoulders looking me in the eyes.  


"You know that you can tell me anything. I'm here to help you."

I sighed. "I know." I looked up at his golden eyes. "I just... I dunno. I don't understand it, is all."

He nodded.

"I wasn't there when Edward saw the house for the first time, so I don't truly know his reaction, but I'm sure that everything will be just fine, Bella. We're going to a new place to start a new life. Esme is a wonderful decorator; she will turn that room around in no time to however you would like it. Trust me,"  
he smiled.

I nodded. "I know. I guess I underestimated that room. It will be beautiful once she gets to it, I know it."

He chuckled again and started walking.

"You know, there is a plus side to living way out in the middle of nowhere."

"Is there?" I asked. "And what might that be?"

"There are no schools or businesses close by, so we don't have to pose in society or anything. Alice can just buy more stocks and keep an eye on them. It'll be great!" He beamed.

"Jasper, I wouldn't have to worry about posing as a member of society anyways. I could barely help myself the last time I got a whiff of a human."

He stopped smiling.

"It gets easier, I promise. I had a really hard time with it when I first came here, you witnessed that yourself, and that was years later. But you will do much better than I will, I think. You have the willpower that I didn't have in the beginning, and that alone makes you much stronger."

"You think so?"

"I really do."

He slung his arm around my shoulders.

"If you ever need to talk about anything at all, I'm here for you, Bells."

"Thanks, Jasper."

He smiled again.

"So, what do you think about brushing up on your French?"

I groaned. "Do I seriously have to learn it? I stink at languages."

"No, _before_ you stunk at languages. Now you have an enhanced memory. You'll never have that problem again. Look at Edward. He speaks at least twenty different languages."

I smiled. "That's true."

We made it back to the house before nightfall, and I felt considerably better, probably owing to the fact that Jasper kept his arm slung around my shoulders. I remembered that when he has physical contact with someone, he can alter their emotions much stronger than normal. Alice pulled him away to discuss something and I continued on to the front door, still feeling happy thanks to Jasper. As soon as I stepped in the door, it was like someone had popped my happy bubble.

Sitting on the couch right in my line of vision from the door, was Tanya and Edward. It wouldn't have bothered me if they were just innocently sitting side by side, but they weren't. I blinked my eyes just to make sure I wasn't imagining this. Tanya was sitting on Edward's lap with her head on his chest, and he had his arms around her with his head resting on the top of hers. I could see that she was tracing her fingers in small circles on the back of his neck and just under his jaw was the faintest spot of lipstick. Immediately, I felt cold and unwanted, like I had stepped into a private moment and I was clearly not supposed to be there. At the same time, it felt like my insides plummeted down to my feet and I was rooted to the spot. The gaping hole in my chest that had been patched up so long ago upon Edward's arrival back home so many years ago was violently ripped open. If I were still human, I knew that I would certainly die from the pain that was currently ripping through my heart.

I gasped and the faint sound made them both snap their heads around to look at me. Edward's eyes met mine and he immediately let go of Tanya, while she grinned wickedly at me. In a split second, he tried pushing her off of his lap, but she grabbed his head and kissed him, while running her hands through his hair – through the very same hair that I had run my hands through countless number of times. His eyes never left mine; they were apologetic as he tried to push her off again. I couldn't even think straight and the gaping hole in my chest was on fire, pain ripping through it again and again. So I did what I felt was logical, I turned around back out the door and ran.

I ran blindly, not even thinking about where exactly I was going, I was just trying to get far enough away from that house so that I could curl up and succumb to the pain. I wrapped my arms around myself and sped up. How could he have done that? After all that we have been through together, he promised and everything. I wiped my hand across my lips to make sure that I wasn't wearing lipstick – it came away dry, so I definitely hadn't left any on his skin. I ran faster, trying to get away from him and from the pain that he had caused me. I couldn't understand what I had done to him to make him not love me 

anymore. I had finally just started to accept that our relationship was genuine and that we deserved each other and everything, and then he turned around and did this with Tanya.

I reached the base of the mountain where our clearing is and immediately began scaling it. I quickly reached our clearing, but I knew that this place was too obvious. I looked up at the top of the mountain, and remembered that Alice had once told me in private, of a little cave close to the top that was well hidden. She had said that if you were looking for somewhere to hide for a couple of hours, it was perfect. I immediately ran towards it, not stopping. It might not be ideal, but I needed somewhere to go for a few hours, or days, or however long it would take for the pain to stop.

I reached it in a matter of seconds, quickly scanned it to make sure that no animal was currently inside it and crawled in. I decided that being near the edge was not a good idea. I knew that vampires couldn't kill themselves – not easily at least, but I still didn't want to fall down an entire mountain. I crawled further and further into the cave until I came to the end of it, where the walls and the floor met and I lay down and curled up in a ball, crossing my arms across my chest and letting the pain overcome me.

This time, the pain was magnified about a hundred times. I wasn't sure if it was because I was being torn apart for a second time, and it was much harder, or if being a vampire had something to do with it. Whatever the case was, it was unbearable. I tried with all my might not to scream out, as I didn't want to give myself away. Instead, I sobbed. Dry sobs, since I couldn't actually cry, so it was even more pathetic than the last time. I closed my eyes and blackness overcame me. I wasn't sure if it was blackness from the pain or blackness from the cave, but I was sure that I wasn't going to live through being ripped apart again. A person can only handle that so many times, and I had certainly suffered enough for one lifetime.

Edward had made it quite clear as he was sitting on Tanya's couch that I meant nothing to him. Thinking of that made the pain intensify. Even if he did try and push her off of him, he didn't try to stop me at all. All those years together, all those kisses, and hugs, and the times he snuck into my house, all meant nothing. Every time he said 'I love you' must have meant nothing to him. Even getting married! Why would he go to such great lengths if it all meant nothing to him? If he knew that he could just throw it all away, why would he have strung me along for so long? It certainly wasn't fair to either of us. I knew that one thing was for sure, I couldn't live through this again. Not even becoming a vampire could have prepared me for this.

As I lay there, curled up in a ball on the cave floor, crying dry tears, and feeling the pain ripping through my chest, I felt like I wanted to die. My reason for existence had turned out to be a farce, I had nothing now.

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	9. Misunderstandings

**A/N: I've been proofing these chapters for awhile and finally got them to a point where I feel comfortable posting them. Enjoy!**

**Thanks to luvinhim4life for their wonderful review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic.**

The pain coursed through me for hours and hours. All I could do was lie there in the semi-dark cave with my eyes closed and let it take over me. By the time I had opened my eyes again, I caught a glimpse of the sky outside and saw that it was no longer light out. In fact, there were stars visible to my eyes in this hiding place.

I closed my eyes again and pulled my legs closer to my chest. I remembered from the last time that as long as I had kept my heart covered in some way that the pain would lessen a bit. This time was very different. The pain did not let up one bit, no matter what position I lay in.

I turned my body so that my back was to the mouth of the cave and began to think things over. I had to come up with some sort of a plan now, since Edward clearly wanted me out of his life. I couldn't ever go back to Forks, so that was completely out of the question. I knew that I couldn't stay here, not with Tanya so close. I loved the rest of the coven very much, but I just couldn't stay here. I thought over every possible place that I could go and the one that appealed to me the most was to go to Italy; to Volterra, specifically. I had witnessed firsthand what the Volturi would do if I revealed their big secret, and I knew exactly how to do it, thanks to Edward. All I needed was a crowd of people and a lot of sunshine, and once I stepped out into the sun, the Volturi would surely have no choice but to kill me. It seemed like that would be the equivalent of winning the lottery, if that should happen. At least it would take away this horrible, horrible pain.

I heard a very soft movement. If I didn't have exceptional hearing, I would have passed it off as being an animal, or a branch rustling, but I knew better. I sensed its weight as it stood a few feet away and I could hear its breathing – or lack thereof, because it wasn't breathing at all.

"Go away," I said, just barely whispering while trying to press myself further into the rock.

"Bella," he said, his voice dark and pained.

When he spoke, the pain lessened, though I tried to will it to stay. It hurt a lot trying to stop it, but it was better than trying to believe in his pained voice.

"Bella, please," he pleaded.

"No," I growled.

I heard him take a step closer towards me and I flattened myself up against the rock.

"It's not what you think," he started.

I growled again.

"Bella, please! I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that!"

"Go away," I repeated.

"Please, look at me. I'm sorry Bella, I really and truly am. Please, just turn around and look at me so I can explain what happened."

Between his pleading and the pain and hurt in his voice, I was compelled to turn over and face him. I found myself so far at the back of the cave that I could not see his face in the dark. I then moved myself out a little bit and sat up with my arms around my legs and pulled them up to my chest. I willed myself to look at his face.

His face was crumpled and hurt, and I could see that he was broken. His hair was standing unusually on end, like he had run his hand through it several hundred times, as if he were in distress. His eyes were pained and black.

"Thank you," he whispered.

I didn't answer and he sighed.

"Look, what you saw must have looked bad, but I assure you that nothing was going on between Tanya and I. I swear to you, Bella. I'm so sorry if it came across as something else, and I'll apologize to you a hundred times, or however many times it takes for you to forgive me, just please, hear me out."

"Sure didn't look like 'nothing was going on'," I mumbled and he kneeled down in front of me, hurt flickering across his face.

"Bella, okay, let me explain," he paused and I looked at him, waiting for him to continue. "I was sitting down on the couch reading your copy of Wuthering Heights when Tanya came down and sat beside me. I was about to leave when she grabbed my hand and made me listen. She apologized to me for being upset and unwelcoming towards the idea of you and I as a married couple. She said that after all my years of suffering that she was really happy for us, and happy that neither of us had to live our lives alone in this world. She said that she was going to apologize to you too. Then she just about started crying because she is afraid that she will never find her soul mate, and that she'll have to live an eternity by herself." He stopped and looked in my eyes. "Tanya is like my cousin, Bella. I had to try and comfort her in some way, and she was so distraught that I did the first thing that I thought of, what I do to you when you are upset, and I pulled her into my lap to comfort her. I know it was a stupid idea, but it was an automatic reaction. She calmed down a lot and we were just talking when you came in."

"It sure didn't look like you were 'just talking'." I said.

He gave me an exasperated look.

"Look, I can't explain why Tanya would do that, I'm not in her head," he paused. "Well, you know what I mean."

"No, I don't."

He sighed.

"I can read her mind, but I didn't see that coming. If someone doesn't want me to know something, they can block it from me. So she hid that kiss from me."

I snorted. "Sure looked like she planned that out."

"You think that I would just sit there and let it happen if I knew she was planning on doing that? Do you think I'm that stupid?"

I shook my head and looked away.

"When you walked into the room, Bella, all I thought about was how that must have looked to you. If you had just stayed for another second, I could have explained it all to you and you wouldn't have run off. Of course, I chased after you the millisecond after you started running and followed you to the mountain. I stopped when I got to the bottom and watched you come up here. I just need to calm myself down. I was so incredibly mad at Tanya for doing that, I needed a second to focus."

He moved closer to me and reached out to touch my cheek. With the contact that he provided, I felt the gaping hole start to mend itself. He turned my head back to look at him and rested his hand on the side of my neck.

"I just wish that you could understand how sorry I truly am, Bella. I really didn't mean for anything like this to come between us."

"It's okay, I used to do this to you all the time with Jacob," I whispered and he frowned.

"How did you-?"

"It just came to me, I don't know," I answered, looking down.

"Don't be sad, Bella. Let's just move past this, it was a huge misunderstanding anyways. Besides, we are moving out right now."

I reached out and turned his head to the side to where the lipstick was. I leaned in really close to smell it, just to be sure.

"Bella?" he asked and I backed away to look at him.

"Why do you have lipstick on your neck?"

He looked puzzled and wiped the side of his neck, smelling his hand as he pulled it away.

"Alice," he said simply.

I frowned.

"Why is Alice kissing under your jaw?"

He shrugged. "That's as far as she can reach, even on her tip toes."

"Oh, sorry. I just assumed it was..."

He tentatively moved closer, pulling me towards him. I gave in and leaned in to hug him. His arms opened up immediately and he enveloped me, holding me very close to his body.

"I'm so sorry, Bella," he said into my hair. "I love you so very much."

"I love you too," I whispered back.

As we were holding each other, the hole in my chest completely mended itself and there was no more pain. Edward had no idea that he still had that sort of power over me, but I really liked it. I liked knowing that if I was close enough to him, he could mend me and solve all my problems. I then thought about what he told me happened with Tanya, and it didn't make sense. I tensed up as I thought of something and he sensed it, pulling away to look at me.

"What's wrong, Bella?" Edward asked, pushing some hair off my forehead, looking around, concerned.

"I'm not totally convinced that Tanya was truly sorry for being so 'upset and unwelcoming'."

"Why not?"

"It seems like it was more of a strategy to get you alone and feeling sorry for her so that she could –"

He covered my mouth with his hand. "Bella, please, it's not like that at all. Like I said, if she was planning something, I would have known."

"Not necessarily," I said into his hand and he removed it. "She could have been hiding her real motive behind something else, you never would have known. What was she thinking of when she came over to you?"

He thought about it. "She was thinking that she was sorry and that she wanted to make it up to us. Believe me, I know Tanya, she would never plan something like that."

"How do you know? She has a new motive now."

He rolled his eyes. "She does not. I know her, I've known her for a long time, Tanya would never do anything like that."

"That's what you think," I scoffed. "Edward, I've only spent a little bit of time with her and I already know what she was doing to you. I don't have to be a mind reader to figure it out. She sees me as competition, as a hurdle for her to step over to get to you. She more than likely already knows how unsure of myself and of us I already am, so she can use that to her advantage and squash me out of her way."

He looked away, rolling his eyes.

"Edward, listen to me! She was trying to get you alone to... seduce. You," I said through gritted teeth. "I'm sure of that. I'm absolutely sure."

"You don't kn-"

"Don't tell me that I don't know Tanya! I might not be close friends with her like you clearly are, but I do know girls, I know how the female mind works. I know what she was trying to do. And now she'll be trying even harder because that plan didn't work out the way that she wanted it to."

"Bella, it's not like that. That is completely absurd. Why are you being so difficult? Why can't you just accept that Tanya was upset at the prospect of being alone forever?"

I wanted to scream at him.

"I'm not being difficult; I'm just trying to make you see what I'm thinking. You always want to know."

"Yes, I do, but this is just crazy."

I closed my eyes and sat back on my heels.

"So you think I'm crazy. All this time you want to know what is going through my mind and I finally completely open up to you and you think I'm insane. Great, awesome."

"I don't think that you as a person is insane or crazy or whatever, I just think that this idea is. The thought that you put into this is crazy."

I looked away, hurt by his words.

" I'm really glad that I have a supportive and understanding husband," I said, sarcastically. "One who support and values my opinion. One who just disregards what I'm thinking because he thinks it's not true."

I got up and started walked towards the entrance.

"Where do you think you're going?"

He stood up and blocked my path so fast that I almost didn't see him.

"Away."

"Why."

"So that you and Tanya can be together, seeing as how you clearly believe her more than you believe me."

"Why would you say that?"

"Oh, gee, let me think," I tapped my foot on the floor. "The one who is trying to seduce you away from me, sure! You believe whatever nonsense she is thinking of because you _know_ her and you know that she is sincerely sorry and she's like a cousin so you have to comfort her like you do to the person you supposedly love. But the person you're _married_ to? You completely disregard her opinion and blow her off, just because you don't want to hear what she's thinking of."

"That's not true."

"Oh? Isn't it? Then you'd better explain to me what is true, because I'm having a hard time understanding," the volume of my voice crept higher and higher as my temper started to flare.

"Tanya is a good person. She's just going through a hard time and she sought after me to talk it over with. I can't do anything but help her out, because if I ever went to her, she would help me in the same way,"

"Yeah, only she would help you to undress," I muttered.

"Bella."

I rolled my eyes. "That it? That's all you can come up with?"

"Why are you being so difficult? Why can't you accept that Tanya is a good person who's going through a rough patch?"

"Oh, so now she's the 'good person'? What does that make me? The bad person? The evil wife?"

"Bella, stop it," he said through clenched teeth.

"What? What is so wrong with just listening to what I have to say? Instead, you start defending _her_ as soon as you hear something that you don't want to hear. Do you do this to everyone? Do you disregard what they have to say if you don't like it, or is this something that you just do to me, because I'd really like to know."

"You make her out to be such a bad person. Tanya would never do what you are thinking that she planned. She isn't that kind of person."

I clenched my fists at my side to try and sedate my anger. "So I am?"

"That's not what I said."

"You want to know something? Whether you care to think it or not, that's _exactly_ what you said."

He growled. "Tanya would never-"

"Why don't you just go back to Tanya, then?" I shot back. "Then you won't have to deal with me, and my 'stupid ideas' about other people and you won't have to pretend to care about my opinion-or anything about me at all, for that matter."

Edward did something very uncharacteristic of him then and punched the rock in anger, leaving a massive dent and pieces of it flew around the cave.

"Damn it Bella! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU THAT YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE I CARE ABOUT?!" I stepped back in fright as he yelled at me. "The only one I have ever cared about! How many times do I have to tell you? It's getting really tiring, Bella, and I'm getting sick of it!"

"SO GO!" I yelled back. "Why are you still here, then? Leave. Leave and tell everyone that they were right, that I'm not good enough for you. Tell them that this wasn't meant to be, because clearly it isn't working. If you're so sick of it, just LEAVE! Do me a favour and tell Tanya that she wins."

He looked at me, his face filled with rage before turning and walking out of the cave. I immediately crouched down and covered my face with my hands.

"_He's gone,"_ I thought to myself over and over again. "_He's gone, and he's never coming back."_

I dry sobbed into my hands for awhile and thought this situation over. There was no way that I could guess where he went to try and talk to him, not that he would want to talk, given that he had just walked out on me. I took my hands away from my face and looked at the wedding ring. Were we still married? Were we even together anymore? I didn't know how to answer these questions; our fight had left me so rattled.

He was sick and tired of telling me those things? Then why did he stick around with me for so long? He knew that I felt those feelings all the time; he knew that people compared us every day. He knew that I was insecure, that I always felt that I was never good enough for him. I guessed that this was the last straw for him, yet he was the one to gripe about Tanya and then try and comfort her. But then, how was it my fault that I misinterpreted it? With her sitting on his lap, it made things look much worse than they actually were, and I should have stuck around to hear what was going on, but _still._

How could he just side with Tanya? Why wouldn't he just listen to me? I have _always_ listened to whatever he had to say, crazy or not, I listened. I had to listen to his stupid plans and everything and as soon as I tell him exactly what I'm thinking, he shuts me down. That hardly seemed fair to me.

I eventually came to the conclusion that I had nothing else left to live for. Now that Edward was gone from my life, I had nothing. Becoming immortal was a huge mistake, I realized. Without Edward, I had no other life. I couldn't still be friends with the rest of the Cullens without running into him. I couldn't go back to Forks because of the stupid treaty with the wolves. If I had stayed human like Edward had wanted, I could move on. I could be at home with Charlie and be safe and move safely away from the place where Edward had hurt me over and over and start a whole new life. I thought about all of the positives and negatives about staying human for quite some time.

What was the worst thing about being a vampire, I concluded, was that I would have to live with this pain and this memory for the rest of eternity. That unless I could convince the Volturi to kill me, which they would never do because they find me too valuable, there was no way out of this life.

I stood up and walked over to the mouth of the cave. I looked out and down the side of the mountain – it was awfully far down to the bottom, I could hardly see the ground below. Well, I thought, if falling won't kill me, it would certainly hurt me in some way. Falling from this height would _have_ to hurt even a vampire. So I did it before I could talk myself out of it. I jumped.

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	10. Work This Out

**A/N: It really is unsettling when I never get any reviews.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic.**

I was aware that I was falling, more like hurdling towards the ground, I was falling so fast. I knew that the ground was only a few miles away and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the landing and the impact with the ground, imagining which bones I could possibly break, or even if I could break anything at all. The impact that I was so looking forward to never came. My eyes flew open, looking around for the reason as to why I had never hit the ground.

The first thing that I saw was Edward's face and then I realized that he was holding me. Then I saw that we were standing motionless on the ground. I groaned and struggled against his iron grip to try and stand up.

"Put me down," I said to him.

Instead of setting me on my feet, he sat down on the forest floor and sat me in his lap.

"Not what I meant."

"I don't care."

I looked at his face then. A hundred different emotions were clouding his face at once. I never knew that one person could feel them all at the same time. He was clearly concerned and worried; all traces of anger and rage long gone. Sadness also filled his black eyes along with pain.

He quickly looked me over, his hands moving fast and swiftly to make sure that there was no physical injuries, though I'm not sure why there would be any as he caught me before I hit the ground.

"Why, Bella? Why would you jump?"

I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Why? Because I thought that you had left me. I was trying to see if any sort of impact with the ground would have hurt me in any way. It would have taken my mind off of the fact that you had left me."

He looked at me incredulously.

"Are you kidding me, Bella? You thought I left you?"

I looked away, glad that I could no longer blush.

"Yes."

"Why on earth would you think that?"

"We've never, ever had a fight like that. You had sided with Tanya so quickly that I believed you had truly gone to her. I even thought about-." I stopped. He didn't need to hear that right now.

"Yes? Go on."

"Nothing."

He took my face in both of his hands and turned it back to him. He then pressed his forehead to mine and looked at me.

"First of all, I would never, ever leave you. You know better than that. I know I said and did some things up there that were really stupid, and I truly regret it, but honestly, Bella. I don't know how you could think that I would do that to you. How I could do that to myself. How could I just simply walk away from the reason for existence after one silly fight?"

"But you left without a word except to yell at me and I said some things that I shouldn't have, and I thought that you had come to your senses and left."

"Bella, I came down the mountain a little to cool off. I was actually on my way back up when you jumped." He looked up at the mountain above us. "You see that-. Alice, she's _fine_. You can see for yourself in a minute," He growled suddenly to a spot on our left, where Alice was surely coming towards. "She saw you jump and came running to see what happened," he explained.

He took his hands off my face and wrapped them around me instead, pulling me close to him and resting his chin on my head.

"I was just over there, at the base when you jumped. If my heart could still beat, Bella, I would have had a heart attack. You have no idea what I felt when I saw you do that. I had to save you, even though the worst you would have done to yourself would be to maybe receive a bruise after a fall like that. I ran as fast as I could up to that ledge right there," he pointed to one about a quarter of the way up. "I jumped from there and caught you in mid-air and landed here."

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"No, _I'm_ sorry," he said. "I said some things up there that I didn't mean. I really regret them, especially knowing that you tried to commit suicide over them."

I sat in silence and closed my eyes, just letting Edward hold me. He started to rock us back and forth a little bit, probably to calm us both down.

"All that would have happened to me was a bruise?"

"Yes. We're indestructible, you especially, being so young. You know what the only way to kill a vampire is."

"I know, and I. I."

"Go on, you can say it."

"Well, I jumped to try and mildly hurt myself to try and tide me over until I got to... to. Italy."

He immediately stopped breathing and pulled me away from his body to look at me.

"Bella," his voice was pained.

I looked away, not wanting to meet his eyes.

"Bella," he said again, his voice breaking. "Why?"

"What is the point of me trying to live if you've walked out on me? You are the reason that I made myself immortal, and if you left me, I would have to live forever by myself and I couldn't do that. I would rather die than live without you. At least going to Italy would provide an easy way out."

So fast that I don't even really know how it happened, Edward had me pinned down onto the ground and was on top of me, kissing me. I closed my eyes and kissed him back and he deepened the kiss. I followed his lead and copied him. We really didn't need to breathe, but I still broke away after awhile, gasping for air. On top of me, I could hear that he was winded too.

"I thought that you were angry with me," I said.

He pushed his upper body straight up and locked his elbows, so he was looking down at me.

"I am angry with you, but only because you would even think about going to _Italy_," he growled the last word. "I'm even more furious with myself for being the reason why you would jump off a cliff and then try and proceed to get on a plane to go and... and... appeal for your own death."

"Then why are you kissing me?"

He bent his elbows enough to lower his head to softly kiss my lips.

"Because I have to show you that I still love you so much, no matter what happens between us," he spoke and his lips moved overtop of mine, his sweet breath filling my mouth.

He pushed up again and continued.

"I know it's a poor attempt at showing my love for you, but I needed to do something. I need you here with me, Bella; for now and for the rest of forever. To know that you were going to go to Italy because of me is unbearable; I deserve the pain that I feel right now for hurting you."

I reached up and pulled his face back down to mine.

"I said some things that I shouldn't have too, Edward. Neither of us are perfect. I'm just so mad at myself that I got angry with you about something so _dumb_ that I feel so silly."

"Don't feel silly," he said, kissing my neck. "What you said makes sense now."

"You're just saying that now."

He shook his head, dragging his nose back and forth across the skin on my neck.

"No, I'm not. When I got down here, I thought of what happened with Tanya and what you had said and it did make sense. I'm sorry that I got so mad at you. I guess I just didn't want to believe that someone would try and take advantage of me like that. Especially not someone that I've known for years."

I kissed his cheek.

"It's alright, I forgive you."

He started kissing along my jaw.

"But," he breathed onto my skin.

"What?"

"There's always a 'but' with you."

I sighed.

"But I'm still mad at myself."

He stopped and looked at me, concern flooding his face.

"Why?"

"I said some really horrible things to you up there, and now that I think about it, I really didn't mean any of them. I was just so caught up in the fact that you were standing against me and sticking up for Tanya that I just exploded. I feel awful."

"Isabella," he whispered into my ear, his breath tickling it. "We both said some things that we are always going to regret, but whatever. Couples fight. You wouldn't _believe_ the stupid things that Rosalie and Emmett fight over. She once yelled at him because of his outfit, and another time because he wasn't loving her as much as he should."

"Yes, but those are stupid things, this wasn't."

He sighed and rested his nose on mine.

"Yes it was. I can guarantee that years from now we will look back and agree that this was a dumb thing to fight over."

I looked into his eyes for a second before catching his lips with mine and kissing him deeply again. He obliged and I could feel him smiling. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around him, slowly inching his body closer to mine. I could feel his tongue on my lips, searching for an entrance - one that I gladly gave to him. He ran his tongue along the roof of my mouth ever so gently. I shuddered and moaned a little into his mouth and he chuckled.

"Don't tease me like that," I breathed.

"I have to," he said, his voice dark. "I need to keep you wanting more."

"Edward," I groaned. "Do you have to be so forward? You just killed the moment."

He chuckled and kissed my jaw and my neck all the way down to where it meets my shoulder and bit down playfully; not enough to break the skin. I bit my lip to stop from screaming out and instead whispered his name. He smiled into my skin.

"You see? Now you-"

I didn't let him finish before I kissed him again.

I jumped really high beneath him when I heard a voice start speaking from behind us.

"You know, you should really save that for somewhere not as open. How many times have you yelled at Rosalie and Emmett for doing this?" Alice asked, leaning against a tree.

"Go away, Alice. This is different," Edward said, smiling down at me before leaning in to kiss me again.

"No, no way," Alice danced over and started prying Edward off of me. "I did not come all this way just to stand here and watch you suck her face off. Get up."

Edward groaned. "Come on, two more minutes?" He rested all of his weight on one arm as he reached the other around to try and remove Alice's hold on him.

"No. I need to talk to Bella."

"She's right here, talk to her," he said and then kissed me again.

Alice sighed. "Edward, what I need to talk to her about is none of your business."

"Um, Alice? News flash, Bella and I are in this together. Her business is my business and my business is her business."

"She won't want to talk about it in front of you though."

"How do you know?" He growled into my neck. "Alice, sometimes you can be really annoying, you know."

I pushed Edward's shoulders up into the air so that he was above me.

"Yeah, hi. I would really appreciate if you stopped talking about me like that directly in front or, well. On top of me, like this."

Edward boomed with laughter and Alice rolled her eyes.

I ignored Edward and spoke to Alice.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Not in front of Edward, how many times do I have to say that?"

"A lot, obviously," I said, smiling. "Can't you just tell me the subject?"

She thought about it for a minute. "Fine, I'll tell you. But Edward has to get off of you first, because it just makes this whole situation awkward. And we also have to start heading back, everything's ready to go."

Edward sighed and started to sit up, but I caught his face in both my hands and kissed him. He smiled and was about to deepen it when I pushed him away.

"Later," I whispered.

He smirked and stood, pulling me up with him so I was standing beside me. He then snaked an arm around my waist.

"What was it, Alice?" I asked.

She looked pointedly at his arm. "I think that you should run ahead, Edward. We'll be there soon enough."

"Why are you so opposed to me being here, Alice?"

"Well, it might be uncomfortable for Bella, that's all." She then looked right over at him and he stared back, obviously sharing a thought between them as I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked away.

"Alice, we've already spoken about that," Edward said quietly. "Do you really need to bring it up again?"

"Yes, I do, because even if she's told you the reason, she hasn't told the rest of us. I almost had to physically restrain the rest of them so that they wouldn't follow me because I told them, so I have to have something to tell them when I go back, and I'm not going to make Bella do it."

I looked away and waited for one of them to speak to me.

"Bella, I had a vision of you getting on a plane going to Italy. Then I had another one of you standing out in the open, in the sunshine and the Volturi's guard was taking you away to kill you. As I started running out of the house towards you, I saw you jump off this mountain. Can you please just tell me why? Why you would have decided to go to Italy? What is wrong? I thought that everything was okay with you and now I see you plotting your own death." Alice's eyes were swimming with tears that she could never cry.

I took a deep breath.

"Let's start walking back," I suggested.

We began walking and I could tell that Alice was growing impatient, so I started talking.

"You really want to know why? It's not a pretty story."

"I guessed that much, seeing as how you were trying to kill yourself. But go on, Bella."

I took a deep breath and Edward squeezed me closer to him as reassurance.

I told her an edited version of our fight, leaving out some of the points that I didn't want to ever remember, or admit that we even said that. Edward didn't jump in to fill in the blank spots that I left. I could tell that Alice knew I was leaving some parts out, but she didn't push me for the details, which I was grateful for. I eventually stopped talking and we were all silent for once.

"So that was all over a silly fight?"

I looked up at Edward, who nodded.

"You see Bella, I told you that it was a silly fight."

I closed my eyes and looked away.

"Bella, if it's any consolation, Jasper and I fight too. So does Esme and Carlisle. We can't always agree on everything, it's natural to butt heads every once in awhile. Just because we fight though, it doesn't diminish our love for one another. Nothing could ever change that." She took my hand and squeezed it.

"I know," I whispered.

We walked in silence for a little while longer.

"I can't believe that Tanya would do that though," Alice said.

"Neither could I," Edward replied, looking down at me. "But I guess it makes sense now, especially hearing Bella say it."

She nodded.

"Well, I'm going to run ahead and tell the others that they don't need to over react. I'll make sure that they won't bother you and pester you with questions, alright Bella?"

I nodded.

"I'll also make sure that everything is ready to go the second you arrive so that we can leave, okay Edward?"

He nodded.

"See you in a few," she said before disappearing.

"How much time do we have?"

He listened for a second.

"The house isn't that far away, Alice just got back and is explaining what happened. Why? What do you need to do?"

"Do we have enough time to hunt?"

He looked down at me. "Do you need to hunt a little, Bella? Your eyes are golden."

I shook my head. "I don't need to, you do."

He looked away. "Stop worrying about me, Bella. I'm just fine. It's nothing that I can't handle."

I stood in front of him and placed my hands on both of his shoulders. "Come on, Edward. I don't like seeing you like this. Let's just go and you can hunt and then we can leave. I don't want you to be thirsty."

"I'm not, Bella. I told you."

I rolled my eyes. "This may be your last chance to have a mountain lion for awhile."

He smiled crookedly and shook his head. "Alright, you got me there. That's very true."

He looked off in the distance and I knew that he could smell one. I took a deep breath and could smell his cat.

"Just go, Edward. I'll follow you in the tree tops."

"Are you sure?" He asked, crouching down.

I laughed and ruffled his hair. "Of course I am. Now go, before it gets away."

Edward closed his eyes, took a breath, opened them again and started running. It was a really good thing that I was so attuned to his smell, or I would have lost him because he was so fast. I quickly ran through the tops of the trees and followed him. I stopped and watched Edward feed from the animal before running off to find another one. I smiled and followed him around until he was done.

"Bella?" Edward called out and I jumped to the ground beside him.

"You ready?" I asked and he nodded. "Feel better?"

"Much," he said, smiling. "Thanks."

"It's not a problem, love."

He looked in the direction of the house. "We should probably get going back now."

I nodded and turned to start running, but he quickly picked me up and slung me over his back, like he used to do when I was human. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and hung on as he ran.

We got back to the house and everyone minus Tanya was standing in the driveway, evidently waiting for our return. I jumped down lightly and we walked over to them all. Esme was the first to come forward and wrap her arms around me.

"Are you alright, Bella?" she whispered into my hair and I nodded. "If you ever need anything, anything at all, you can always come to me."

"I know that," I whispered back. "And thank you so much."

She pulled away and smiled, touching my cheek lightly.

"Anything at all, Bella. I know that I'm not your real mother, and this must be hard having her still alive, but I'm here if you ever need to talk, or if you need someone to stand in as your mother for a little while," she ran her hand through my hair, pushing it off my face.

"Esme, you won't ever need to 'stand in' as my mother. You are my mother. My real mom was always like a big sister to me, and I was the one always taking care of her."

"Well, you won't ever need to take care of me, I can promise you that."

I smiled and hugged her tight. "Thank you, Esme. I love you so much."

"I love you too, Bella. It's wonderful having you with us now. I always wanted another daughter," she said and I laughed lightly.

We stepped back out of our embrace and Edward wrapped his arms around me as Carlisle did the same to Esme.

"Alright, everything is ready to go," Alice reported. "So now we just have to get going."

We all turned and said our goodbyes to Carmen, Eleazar, Irina and Kate and promised that we'd visit soon and keep in touch and then we started piling into our vehicles. Jasper wordlessly hugged me and I could feel contentment seeping thought me.

"Jasper," I groaned.

He chuckled. "It's the least I can do, Bella."

I shook my head and he stepped away and sat on his motorcycle. He started it and the engine roared to life as Alice ran up to him and kissed him. Jasper smiled and waved to me and I nodded back as he drove off, Alice's yellow Porsche hot on his tail behind him.

I turned around and Emmett was a standing right behind me. I jumped and he laughed, then sobered up pretty quickly.

"I'm so sorry, Bella," Emmett said, solemnly before pausing. "But I believe that there's only room for one suicidal vampire in this family."

I shook my head and punched his arm lightly.

"Ow, Bella!" he exclaimed, holding his arm.

My eyes widened in concern. "Oh my gosh! Emmett! I'm so sorry!" I covered my mouth with my hands. "I really didn't mean for it to be too hard, I just did it lightly. Oh!" I wrung my hands. "I can't believe. I'm so sorry, Emmett. Let me see."

Emmett doubled over in laughter and ruffled my hair. "You're a goof, that didn't hurt me at all! I just wanted to see your reaction."

I glared at him. "Not funny, Emmett.

"Come on, Emmett, let's go. I hate driving at night, I want to get there quickly," Rosalie said to him before hopping in her BMW.

He patted my shoulder before hopping into his Jeep and starting it. "Lighten up, Bella. You need a little humour in your life."

"That was in no way humorous, Emmett."

He shrugged. "That's what you think. See you later!" He waved over his shoulder as he sped away and I waved back, shaking my head.

Edward came up behind me and took my hand, leading me to the Volvo.

"Do me a favour, Bella?"

"What is it?"

Esme and Carlisle were still saying their goodbyes, so we got in the car and he started it.

"When we get there, challenge Emmett to an arm wrestle. I asked you to do this before you became immortal, and I think that now is the right time."

I smiled as he sped away from the Denali house.

"I would love to do that."

He chuckled.

"I just want to see Emmett's face when he loses."

"I can't guarantee that he'll lose though."

"Oh, I can. It's your newborn strength against old Emmett. Even with his large muscles, it's no match for  
you. I bet that it will only take about a second for you to win."

I looked out the window. "I'm glad that you're confident in me, but I still don't know."

He took my hand in his.

"Trust me, Bella. Everything will work out."

I nodded and watched the trees speed by as we drove to our new house to start a new chapter in our lives.


	11. Moving Day

**A/N: As always, thanks for checking out my story, and thanks especially to those who have added it to their favourites! It's always nice to know that at least some people are reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic**

When we got close to Winnipeg, I rested my head against the glass of the window and closed my eyes. All that we were passing was trees and fields, and it was the same old repetition and it was kind of boring. I was really looking forward to getting to the new house and our attic, I thought. I knew I must have been bored if I was looking forward to the _attic_.

"What are you thinking about, love? You've been very quiet for most of the ride, is something on your mind?"

I shook my head with my eyes still closed. "No, I'm fine." I peeked from under my eyelashes to look over at Edward, who was looking back at me with an eyebrow raised.

"What?" I asked him, smiling.

"Come on, Bella. You can tell me what's wrong," he said.

I looked away again. "Edward, there is nothing wrong, why can't you accept that?"

"I can't accept that because I know it's not true. Jasper told me...well, he didn't tell me so much as I read his mind, but..." he closed his eyes while still driving.

"Don't you dare close your eyes while driving, Edward! You'll kill us both!"

He chuckled. "I will not. I'm a great driver, and besides, we can't be killed by something as silly as a car crash. Though I wouldn't want to crash my car, I'm quite attached to this one," he said while patting the dashboard.

I giggled and then spoke, "What did you see in Jasper's mind?"

Edward reached over and took my hand in his before speaking. "It was when you all had just returned from looking at this house, I could hear him approaching the house, but not you, naturally, so this was before you... took off. I saw that you two had talked about this house and your...concerns... about our living space. Is that what's bothering you?"

I sighed. He was dead on.

I nodded. "It's just... I won't say anything more after this, but Alice said that you had loved the attic when you had first seen it, and I was pretty sure that I knew you very well, and it doesn't seem like something you would say about that space. It's so small and cramped and dark and... yeah..." my voice faded out.

"Bella, I know that it may not look like much right now, but trust me, I know Esme and I know what she can do when she's armed with a paintbrush and an Emmett holding a hammer," he chuckled. "It'll be fine. I know it's a little out of the way compared to where everyone else's rooms are, but I like that. It creates a little privacy..." he trailed off suggestively.

"Privacy? That might be nice," I agreed, but then quickly thought about it. "Edward, just because the rest of your family can't read minds, it doesn't mean that they wouldn't be able to hear us if we... still. We can't do that under Esme and Carlisle's roof." I would have blushed if I could have.

Edward chuckled loudly. "Why are you so worried about it? _Everyone_ in that household, minus myself, is guilty of it. Trust me, the rest of us are pretty good at magically finding something to do when things gets a little heated. Did you know that Esme had to build Rosalie and Emmett their own house because we were all _so_ sick of hearing them? Think about that! And the rest of them aren't even in either Rosalie or Emmett's heads!"

I smiled. "But still, Edward, I don't exactly feel comfortable doing that when your family is around."

He rolled his eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you; they're your family too. They always have been. Ever since you walked through that door, just like Esme said."

I switched the topic quickly. "So what plans do you have for this room?"

Edward flashed me one of his patented crooked smiles and launched into a detailed plan of what he wanted to do with our attic. I smiled softly while listening to him as the miles flew by, literally, and we got closer to our destination.

Several hours later we pulled onto the road to the house and then it abruptly came to an end.

"No way! How did she beat us here? She drives slower that I do!" Edward exclaimed upon seeing that his Vanquish was parked in the road just ahead of us.

Esme stepped out of the car and winked at us as Edward parked beside her.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up," she teased, smiling.

Edward promptly jumped out of the car and began inspecting his other car as I got out slowly. "You didn't scratch it did you? In your haste to get here?"

Esme pretended to look horrified and stood beside me as I leaned against my door watching him. "Edward, what kind of mother do you think I am? I took very good care of your car."

Edward finished his inspection and was clearly impressed with the pristine condition it was still in, despite its cross-country travels. He looked away for a second before smirking and saying,  
"Alice wants to know when you want to get started on the garage, Esme."

Esme laughed. "That girl! She's very impatient sometimes."

"Am not!" Alice voice floated out of the forest behind us and she appeared at my side, hugging me tightly.

I hugged her back and then giggled as I realized she was wearing a tool belt equipped with everything a handyman would need.

"I know, Alice. You know I was just teasing you," Esme said, smiling down at her.

"I know. So when _are_ we getting started on the building? Emmett and Rosalie are clearing the land as we speak."

The sound of falling trees came from the direction that Alice appeared from along with some heavy panting. I suddenly realized that they weren't using any sort of tools to help them to clear this land. I laughed and Edward smiled at me.

"You see, Bella. Nobody cares,"

I opened my mouth in shock. "Edward!" I looked quickly over at Esme and down at Alice, who, bless their hearts, were trying to immerse themselves in plans for the house.

Edward came over and stood directly in front of me and took my hand, pulling me close to him.  
"What, Bella. You're the only one making a big deal out of this."

I started to turn my head to look at Esme and Alice, but he firmly held my face in his hand so I had to stay looking at him.

"Maybe I'm not exactly comfortable with public displays of affection. Maybe I'm just not ready."

Edward tilted his head to the side. "You are ready, Bella. You've been ready since you forced yourself upon me a few months ago, claiming that you were ready." He touched his forehead to mine, "It's not a _public_ display of affection either; it's just you and me," his voice dropped to a whisper and his breath tickled my cheek as I turned my head slightly. "You had no problem with it earlier when Alice was with us," he added.

I started to object. "But Edward, I..."

Edward silenced me by pressing his lips to mine and wrapping his arms around me. Before I closed my eyes, I chanced a look to see that Esme and Alice had taken off. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around Edward, kissing him fiercely.

Edward kissed along my jaw while twisted my fingers in his hair. He playfully bit my neck and I moaned and immediately pulled his face back up to mine, fusing my lips with his instantly. Our lips moved in synchronization as he pressed my body closer to his until they were touching. Every nerve ending that was touching Edward's body was on fire and I clutched myself closer to his, trying to let him know that with my body language that I was ready.

I heard the crunching of tires coming towards us, but I didn't realize how out in the open we were until the door opened and someone stepped out of the car.

"Umm... Edward? Bella? Perhaps now is not the time or the place..." Carlisle said, awkwardly.

Instantly, I let go of Edward and detached myself from him, running away a few feet to stand beside the nearest tree. Edward looked around until he spotted me and then smirked.

"Oh, come on, Carlisle. Rosalie and Emmett are just on the other side of the forest doing worse things than we were," he winked at me.

"I'm well aware of that, I can hear them too. I still believe that we have other things to be doing," Carlisle said, while looking at him pointedly.

"Right," Edward replied while making his way over to me and taking my hand. "We should get up to the house, love. Esme wants to get started on our room as soon as she can. She wants us to be at home quickly."

I frowned. "Why?"

"She wants to make our room gorgeous, and everyone else, including Alice and her closet plans, has agreed to let her work on our room first. So we have to get up there and look around and see what we want to do."

I looked up at him, not completely believing that Alice would put off getting her new closet for us, but Edward was grinning and I couldn't not believe him when he looked so sincerely happy like that.

"Al right, let's go. What about our stuff though?" I asked, gesturing to the Volvo and to the stuffed trunk of his Aston Martin.

Edward shrugged. "We can get it later. It's not going anywhere," he laughed at his own joke and started running, pulling me along.

I let him tug me along all the way up to the house, where I noticed that there was a considerable amount of cleared space now that definitely wasn't there when I came to see the house before. I giggled to myself, knowing how and why the land got that way and Edward gave my hand a soft squeeze. We entered the large house and Jasper was already inside, moving boxes of stuff around.

"Hey guys!" he called out to us, poking his head out from behind a box.

"Hey Jasper!" I replied. "Need a hand?"

Jasper placed the boxes on the kitchen counter and turned to us.

"Nope! I've got everything in place now. Well, almost everything," he thought about it. "I have yet to tackle Alice's massive amount of clothing that still needs to get upstairs." He sighed, shaking his head lightly. "_How_ exactly she managed to pack everything into that little car of hers is beyond me."

"Hey!" Alice called out from behind us. "I can't help it if I'm an exceptional packer. Besides, it all _had_ to fit in my car; nothing could be carried on your bike." She said, while crossing the room to stand beside him.

I smiled watching the two of them standing beside each other. Alice looked up at Jasper and beamed at him, expressing all her emotions to him with one smile. It was like nothing in the world could ever come close to the love she had for him and Jasper looked back at her with pure adoration written across his face.

Ever since my transformation into a vampire, I had discovered that looking at Jasper through human eyes was different than looking at Jasper through vampire eyes. The Jasper that I had recently gotten to know still had the same blonde hair and blue eyes, but it had taken awhile to get used to his added features.

Through my human eyes, I could not see the scars that covered his body until he held them up under the light to show me, but through my new eyes, they were very visible, and not just on his arms. The scars that he received many years ago from all the newborns covered his entire body. He admitted to me that after he first joined the Cullen coven, whenever he met a new vampire, he became very self-conscious and would try to hide them to the best of his ability, but they still showed somewhere. He also said to me that Alice convinced him that he shouldn't hide his past and who he was, that it would always be a part of him. I agreed with her completely.

At first they had kind of freaked me out a little bit, but now I was completely used to them and didn't really give them a second thought. It was moments like the one that Alice and Jasper were sharing right now, looking at each other with love in their eyes that I completely forgot about them. I felt Edward tug on my arm and we started climbing the stairs to go up to our room.

We got to the second floor and turned to the right towards the invisible wall.

"Esme's already up there," Edward said as we continued towards it.

I nodded and followed.

We reached the part of the wall I remember Alice walking up to and Edward pushed on it and nothing happened. I laughed and he tried again, but it didn't budge.

"What is going on?" he said to himself. "It worked the other day."

I stifled a giggle. "Maybe it's stuck?" I offered.

"Impossible," he said, running both his hands over the wall, looking for the break. "It's right here," he said, tracing the outline with his finger.

Once he traced it out, I could see the crack in the wall where it was and began pushing on it too. I heard Emmett laugh from behind us and ignored him, continuing to search.

"Are you guys locked out of your own room?" he asked, still laughing and Edward growled.

"Not funny, Emmett."

"Yes it is, Edward. The funniest part is that you're looking in the wrong spot," he came over and stood between us. "It's right here," he said, pushing on the wall on the other side of Edward. At his touch, the wall opened up to reveal the staircase behind it.

"Thanks, Emmett," I said, patting his arm.

He ruffled my hair. "It's not a problem, Bella. I'm happy to help whenever my brother is incapable of doing something." Edward glared at him while I tried to fix my hair.

"Why do you always have to mess up my hair, Emmett? I never do anything to you."

"It's not messed up, Bella, just rearranged. I'm sure that Alice would approve of my hairstyling," Emmett nodded while saying this.

"Bella, remember what I said to you earlier?" Edward asked.

I shook my head and he sighed, pointing to his arm behind Emmett. I smiled.

"Oh yeah! Emmett, want to arm wrestle once Edward and I are done here?"

Emmett's jaw dropped and then he smiled, pulling me into a bone crushing hug.

"Of course I would, Bella! I have wanted to since we first started talking about making you immortal! This is like a dream come true!"

"Wow, Emmett. If this is all it takes to make you really happy, I should have thought about this years ago," Rosalie commented, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kissing his neck.

Emmett let go of me and turned around to face Rosalie, picking her up and cradling her in his arms.

"Come on, Rose, I have to get practising for my win!" he winked at me as they disappeared down the hall.

"That was almost too easy," I said to Edward as we started climbing the stairs. He chuckled.

We got to the room and I noticed there was a table off the left with a candle on it and something beside the candle. I frowned and looked at Edward.

"What?" he said, smiling and shrugging.

"What is that?" I asked.

"I have no idea," he replied. "I just got here too, you know." He was still smiling. "Why don't you see what it is?"

I looked over at him before walking over to the table.

Sitting under the light was two small skeleton keys attached to each other by a red ribbon that had been tied into an elegant bow. I frowned and looked at them as Edward came up behind me and placed his arms around my waist.

"What's wrong, love?"

"What is this?" I asked, holding the keys up and turning my head to look at them. He was still smiling.

"They're keys, love," he said, chuckling.

"I gathered that, but what are they for?"

"One is for me, the other is for you."

I sighed. "Edward, what are these keys for, besides me and you? What do they unlock?"

Edward looked at me cautiously. "Don't get upset, alright?"

"The only reason I have to get upset is that you're not explaining what they're for," I replied.

He kissed my cheek quickly before explaining.

"Esme, Alice and Rosalie sort of bought us a house. It was Rosalie's idea, and I couldn't do anything about it," he explained quickly. "They figured that since everyone else has separate houses that we should have one too. That and Esme felt horrible about this house not having enough rooms for us all to fit in here comfortably like in the Forks house."

I sighed. "Well, they still shouldn't have."

I heard a chuckle behind me and turned around to see everyone else standing at the top of the stairs watching us.

"What's so funny, Alice?" I asked.

"Bella, you're so finicky. Why can't you just say 'Oh, Edward, I love it! Thank you so much Rosalie, Esme and Alice for thinking of us?'" she laughed again. "Instead, we get, 'they shouldn't have.'"

"Well, you shouldn't have!" I replied.

"Bella, you're fighting a losing battle," Carlisle pointed out.

I sighed.

"Besides, Edward has been so generous towards everyone over the years, that it's time we repaid him; he deserves it," Esme added gently.

"Yeah," Jasper said. "He gave me my bike and Alice her Porsche and that accounts for more than your house, so don't worry, we're still thinking of how to repay you."

"Don't, Jasper. It's fine," Edward said, smiling. "I don't mind giving gifts to people that I love. Just don't count on a Christmas gift for a long time," he teased, punching Jasper's shoulder.

"But that's Edward, not me. You shouldn't be giving me a house as a gift. That's not normal," I argued.

Alice stepped over to me. "Bella, just smile," she pushed my cheeks up until I couldn't help but smile. "Good. Now give me a hug and say 'thank you, Alice.'" She pulled me into a hug. "Let me hear it."

I hugged her back, still smiling. "Thank you, Alice."

"It's not a problem at all, Bella. It was fun!" She beamed and jumped up and down. "Edward, take her there, she needs to see it!"

"Not so fast, little Alice. Bella still has to arm wrestle me," Emmett said. "She promised and I'm ready to beat her."

I laughed. "Alright, Emmett; let's do this now then, shall we?"

He nodded eagerly, grabbed my hand and led me down the stairs and outside to where there was a fallen tree. He had done something to it and scraped all the rough bark off the top of it that was facing the sky until it was as smooth as a board. Emmett sat down on one side and placed his right elbow on the log.

"Come on, now," he challenged and I sat on the opposite side, putting my right elbow on the log also.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Alice called out, running towards us with a video camera in hand. "It's not set up yet, give me a second."

The rest of the family were right behind her.

"What on earth do we need a video camera for?" I asked.

"We need solid proof for the future when you beat Emmett. He'll be too distracted right away to realize that he lost, so we need to show him later on," Rosalie said, kissing Emmett on the cheek before standing behind him.

She literally took one second to turn it on and ready. "Alright, I'm good to go. Esme, are you going to officiate this match?"

Esme laughed lightly. "Of course I will. Are you two ready?"

We both nodded, staring each other down.

"Alright, on your marks, get set... go!"

Emmett and I began at once and I could tell that this was going to be an easy victory on my part. I was hardly using my muscles to hold him up and it was quite clear that Emmett was going to struggle a bit. I decided to play it up a little bit and release my hold a tiny bit so it seemed like Emmett had the lead. I looked up at Edward, who looked confused, but I rolled my eyes and he immediately understood that I really did have the upper hand and began smiling.

"What are _you_ smiling for?" grunted Emmett.

"What isn't there to smile about?" Edward replied. "I'm standing here watching my beautiful wife arm wrestle with my brother. It's quite the sight to see, actually."

I went through all the motions of a blush, but nothing coloured my cheeks, though in going through the motions, I lost my focus a little bit and Emmett was pushing my arm dangerously low to the log, like he was going to win. I held onto that for another few seconds before saying,

"Sorry, Emmett, I'm not every breaking a sweat here."

He growled and tried harder. I resisted his push and our arms were vertical again at a ninety degree angle. I saw Emmett's frown get deeper as he concentrated.

"I'm going to apologize again before I do this,"

I then used about a tenth of my full muscle power to push on his arm until it was flat against the log and I had won. Cheers erupted from around me as Emmett cried out,

"I wasn't ready, let's go again! I can beat you!"

Carlisle laughed. "Emmett, you're no match for a newborn vampire. Bella, how much energy did you put into that win?"

"Next to nothing," I replied, patting Emmett's arm. "You're still the strongest one in this family, you know."

"Evidently not," he grumbled.

I rolled my eyes. "Do you honestly think that I'll still have this much power in about a year from now? My strength is just temporary, but just look at you! Those muscles are going to be strong for you forever."

He smirked. "You're a smart one, Bella. But we must have several re-matches before your time is up as a newborn. I'm determined to actually beat one and their _amazing_ strength," he rolled his eyes and I laughed.

Alice spoke then "But until then, we fortunately have the video of your defeat to watch over and over again!"

"Yes, which I intend to do, not for the glory, but for tactics. I need to plan a strategy for the next match," Emmett said.

"Oh, come on, Emmett, there's more to life than beating Bella. Let her have her moment to shine, for once," Rosalie piped up.

"Bella is _always_ shining, Rose. Look at her, she radiates beauty out of every pore in her body," Edward spoke, his voice bursting with pride.

"Edward," I said, standing up and burying my head in his chest, embarrassed.

Esme giggled. "There's nothing to be ashamed of, Bella. Everything he said about you was absolutely right. Now, you two should get going so that you're at your new house before dark."

Edward nodded and I pulled away from him to hug everyone. I especially thanked Rosalie, Esme and Alice for blessing us with a house. Secretly, I was glad that we wouldn't ever have to live in the attic. I sure couldn't handle an eternity cooped up in there.

Eventually, we made our way back to where the cars had been parked and I saw something silver glint out of the corner of my eye. Reflexively, I caught the object and looked down to see the keys to Edward's Volvo sitting in the palm of my hand.

"You want me to drive your Volvo," I said, incredulously. "Are you serious?"

He smirked and nodded. "Yes. You need to drive that one so I can take my other car down."

"But Edward, I don't even know how to get there!" I protested.

"Don't worry, Bella," he said calmly, unlocking his Vanquish and opening the door. "You can follow me, I promise not to speed. Too much," he added under his breath, but I caught it.

"Fine," I said, defeated, opening the door and climbing inside.

It felt odd being alone in his car, let alone in the driver's seat. I adjusted the seat so that I could actually reach the pedals; Edward was so tall that I was able to fully extend my legs and move the seat up with lots of room to spare. I got everything settled and turned to face his car.

"Ready?" Edward asked from the driver's seat of his car.

I nodded and the Vanquish's engine roared to life. I turned the key and it quietly started. Edward pulled out of the makeshift garage and I pulled out behind him.

We caught up with the highway and Edward took off; if I didn't have superb sight, I wouldn't have been able to see him. I pressed the accelerator to the floor and the Volvo's engine simply purred as I sped up to follow Edward's pace. I was blown away by the speed this car was capable of; I had known that it could go fast from all the times that I had ridden in it with Edward, but I had no idea that it could go _this_ fast. I mean, it was easily keeping up with Edward in his fancy car, that could no doubt out strip me, but I knew he was taking it 'slow' for my sake. Slow being 120 miles per hour, of course.

We continued South and I began to think about the house. Since I didn't know where we were headed, I couldn't imagine what kind of house we would be heading towards. I hoped that our house wouldn't be too big, because it would just be the two of us, and that would be a lot of wasted space. I hoped that it wasn't too elegant or classy, like I knew that Rosalie would want to make it because she and I had very different tastes when it came to home design. I remember what Edward had said to me earlier though,

"_Esme knows you; and she knows what you like. She would never do anything that would make you uncomfortable."_

I smiled and continued to follow Edward as he raced further south. We crossed the border and began to head east, towards the ocean. Eventually we came to a small town with Edward still leading the way winding in and out of cars and streets and pedestrians like it was nothing.

Soon we came to the ocean front and took the road that followed the coast north a few miles; it was probably more than a few, but at the speed we were going, it took mere minutes, until Edward turned off at an unmarked road.

"_What is it with the Cullens and hidden things?"_ I asked myself, thinking about the Forks driveway that I could never find and then about the hidden door in the wall in the Quebec house.

Eventually the road opened up to reveal a small cottage nestled in the trees. I gasped and a smiled crept onto my face. Edward stopped the car just ahead of the front door and I pulled up behind him. In a flash, Edward was opening my door and pulling me out of the car.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked, smiling.

"I think it's wonderful!" I told him, staring at the house.

He chuckled. "This is only the outside, love," he kissed my cheek before scooping me up and carrying me bridal style to the threshold.

"Edward," I groaned. "You don't have to carry me."

He nuzzled his head in my neck. "I know, but a part of me is still stuck in 1918, Bella. This is who I am. Besides, what kind of husband would I be if I didn't carry my wonderful, beautiful bride into our first house?"

I giggled and he opened up the door. He stepped over the threshold and I took in the front room.

The front room was small and intimate and open, all at the same time. The walls were a light brown caramel color and all the furniture was antique looking, but still looked new. One of the walls was covered in bookshelves that were stocked with the works of everything by just about every author in the world, it looked like. A large brown leather couch was in front of the shelves. On the other side of the cottage was a television surrounded by hundreds- no, thousands of DVDs on a wall unit around the TV. I was shocked at the vast amount of movies there; it looked like the television room on Esme's Isle. I wondered exactly how many years it would take to watch them all.

Edward put me down and I immediately started walking over to the bookcases to look at them, but he grabbed my waist and held me in place.

"Oh no you don't; you'll have plenty of time for that later," he smiled and turned me around. "You have to see the rest of the house first, or else Alice will never forgive me."

I giggled and nodded and let him lead me through to the next room.

Edward took me through the doorway and into a bright and sunny kitchen that was surprisingly large for such a small house. To the right was an archway. Through the arch was a dining room with a large table and chairs surrounding it. I raised my eyebrows and turned to Edward.

"What do we need a kitchen for? I thought we didn't eat human food," I asked.

Edward smiled. "We don't eat human food. Esme, Alice and Rosalie left this kitchen here because they weren't sure if we would want one or not. We can change it into something else if you'd like," he offered.

"It's fine, Edward. I love it. It is perfect and besides, it might be a little weird without one. I mean, your parents still buy houses with kitchens in them."

"I know," Edward said with a smirk on his face.

He then gently guided me backwards until my lower back rested against the counter. He then held my face and kissed me gently. I smiled and pulled away.

"We'll have plenty of time for this later, you know. Right now I want to see the rest of this wonderful house," I whispered.

He let me go and I walked towards the first door I saw off the kitchen and pulled it open. Behind it was a bedroom. The room was completely dominated by a massive bed. There was nothing else but it and two bedside tables.

"Just a bed?" I asked.

He chuckled. "Esme thought that you being a newborn might feel out of place if the bedroom didn't at least have a bed in it."

I nodded. "She's probably right."

On either side of the bed were two doors. I opened the door on the right side first and behind this door was a bathroom.

"Again, not necessary, but still something that even I have a hard time living without," he explained.

I stepped inside because this was not like any bathroom I had ever seen before. It was dominated by a massive white bathtub that was edged in what looked like gold in the middle of the room. Come to think of it, it probably _was_ gold. There was a door to the left of that and when I opened it I discovered a matching toilet. On the opposite wall from the bedroom was a gigantic vanity with two sinks and a huge mirror. In the corner was a huge glass shower.

Edward saw me looking at it and said quietly, "Big enough for two."

I turned sideways to look at him. "What's with all the innuendo lately?"

He just shrugged and walked back into the bedroom.

"This next room won't be of too much interest to you," he said crossing the bedroom to open the other door. "But you know Alice," he said rolling his eyes. "She couldn't give you a house without including one of these."

I tilted my head back to the ceiling. "It's a closet, isn't it?"

Edward opened the door and it confirmed my question. I stepped inside and looked around. This was no ordinary closet. I raised my eyebrows and looked around, letting out a low whistle, surprising myself. I could never whistle when I was a human.

"She really out did herself on this one, didn't she," I commented, looking around.

The walls were completely covered in clothes. There was a large counter in the middle that held shoes and jewellery I found out, when I opened some of its drawers to see. Everything was organized according to type; all the dresses were together and all the sweaters were together, and then it was organized by color from there.

"But, where are your clothes?" I asked Edward.

He smiled and pointed to a very small section of the room where there was mainly his clothes that took up two and a half racks.

"That's it?"

"Alice thought that your wardrobe needed a bigger makeover than mine. Besides, I don't need as wide a variety of clothing as you do."

I shook my head and walked out of the room. The last room that was off the kitchen was a dimly lit room that had a door leading outside. The walls were covered in box shelves that were big enough to hold thousands and thousands of CDs. There was also another large, leather couch and a space big enough for another sound system, since Edward's had to be left in Forks.

"They thought that I should pick out my own stereo, since I'm the only one who'll really be using it."

I nodded.

"Well?" he asked nervously.

"I love it, of course, Edward. It's perfect in every way possible."

"Good," he said. "Esme will be pleased. She was very nervous about this project; I've never seen her like that before."

"Why would she be so nervous about it?"

"She just wanted you to love it," he began. "Whenever she gets Rosalie and Emmett a house, she knows that it's temporary and she doesn't bother putting that much effort into it; they usually destroy them anyways." He shrugged. "Alice and Jasper only have a few other houses, and as you can imagine, Alice is always pretty involved when it comes to her house, so Esme never had to worry about them either. But with you, she tried to make it as perfect as she could, knowing you and what you like. For weeks she thought of nothing but this house and mentally voiced her concerns to me about it. I'll let her know how much you like it."

"Well, she did an awesome job on this house," I said, looking around. "Where exactly are we, anyways?"

"You didn't pay attention on the way here?"

"I was more trying to pay attention to your rear bumper so that I didn't lose you," I replied.

He laughed and I looked around. "We're in Maine, Bells."

I nodded. "Oh, that's nice," I paused. "So do you think that we should get moving our stuff in here?"

"I guess so. Though it won't take as much time as you think it will; vampires, remember?"

"I know," I answered. "But it will be nice to have our own personal touches in here."

He smiled at me. "You're right, as usual."

I giggled and went back out to the Volvo to start unloading it. I pulled out a box of Edward's CDs and took them to the back of the house where his music room was. I turned and headed back out toward the front door and true to my clumsy nature, I tripped on the rug in the front room and just caught a glimpse of Edward's shocked face as he was carrying a box into the house, before I started tumbling down towards the ground. Before I landed on the ground, l felt his arms around me, cradling me to his body before we collided with the floor. Three seconds after we landed, I heard the box hit the floor beside us. I started laughing.

"What's wrong, Bella? Are you okay?" Edward started questioning me at once.

"Edward, I'm fine," I said while still laughing. "It's just so like me. I always knew that I'd be a clumsy vampire."

He smiled and positioned himself over top of me, bent on looking me in the eyes to make sure that I really was alright. I locked my fingers in his hair while my red eyes met with his golden ones. One tenth of a second later, his lips crashed down on mine. I kissed him back and he moaned into my mouth, his tongue searching mine for an entrance, which I gladly gave him. Our tongues intertwined and I was just starting to think of other things we could get up to in our new house where we are all by ourselves, when there was a loud thump as the door was knocked off its hinges and banged to the ground behind us.

Edward broke away from me to look up as someone growled.

"You're dead," the voice said in a dark voice. I tried to think of who it was, but then the smell overtook me and I knew right away.

I felt Edward's body leave mine as he crouched defensively between my body and the person in the doorway. I quickly jumped up and stood behind Edward and glared at Jacob. Jacob growled and jumped towards me, trying to get around Edward, but Edward collided with him in mid air, forcing him back out the door through which he had just come from. They tumbled around on the front lawn, snarling and snapping at each other when Jacob threw Edward off of him and he flew ten feet backwards. Jacob then turned towards me, rage evident in his eyes and started running towards me. Fear rooted me to the spot and I couldn't do anything but scream.

**Reviews are a wonderful invention! : )**


	12. Housewarming

**A/N: Thanks for reading my story! This is the last chapter that I have on my computer already, so all the chapters henceforth still have to be written and I'm working on Chapter 13 right now! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, all characters are the property of the lovely Stephenie Meyer and I make no profit off of this fic**

I stood frozen in place for a half a second watching Jacob come towards me and then my instincts kicked in. I started to run from the house and got a good distance away before I gasped,

"Edward!"

I couldn't leave him there alone with Jacob. What if something happened to him?

So instead, I turned directly around and returned to the house to find Edward just standing on the front lawn by himself. I ran directly into him and he wrapped his arms around me.

"Edward what's going on? Where is he?"I asked.

He shook his head. "I... I don't know," he lied.

"Please, just tell me. Spare the protecting me crap, I thought we passed that stage a long time ago. Just tell me," I begged.

Edward looked around him before speaking,

"He wants you _dead_," he growled the last word. "He thinks that the only way you should exist is to be a human; he doesn't agree with you becoming immortal. He can't wrap his tiny pea brain around it."

A loud snarl erupted in front of us as Jacob emerged from the trees in his full wolf form. Never before had he looked so intimidating to me.

"Edward," I whispered. "What are we going to do?"

"We're going to talk to him," he replied and Jacob growled. "We're going to see if we can come up with a solution that doesn't end in a fight."

Jacob ran back into the trees and came out again in his human form wearing only a faded pair of shorts.

"I'm not here to talk," he said roughly.

"Well you're talking right now, so you might as well cool it for a second," Edward pointed out and Jacob glared at me.

"Fine, talk away; just know that her death is inevitable."

I shuddered and pressed myself closer to Edward, who squeezed me tighter.

"Does Sam know that you're here?" Edward asked.

Jacob shook his head. "I came alone. This is a personal matter, no need to involve the pack. It's just two _vampires_. Like I can't handle that," he scoffed.

"You forget that you're dealing with a temper mental newborn," Edward said to him and I glared up at him. Edward rubbed his thumb over my arm as reassurance that he really didn't mean it.

"I've dealt with them before, remember? You and your blood sucking brother _taught_ us how to destroy newborns."

"Yes, that worked _so_ well for you the last time," I mumbled and Jacob growled.

"Why don't you just go home," Edward suggested. "There is no need to fight. We've moved away from your pack; you have no business being here. How did you even find us, anyways? I disguised the smell of the Volvo and even took the long way here."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Jacob asked. "I've been following you since you left Forks, planning on how to kill Bella," he spat out my name. "I nearly jumped for joy when she jumped off that mountain, if she had killed herself, it would have made my job a whole hell of a lot easier. But of course, _you_ had to go and save the day."

As they argued, I tried to think of ways to get help. I couldn't run away from here and leave Edward alone with Jacob and I knew that I couldn't fight him, I hadn't been taught how. I would just end up hurting myself or Edward and I couldn't live with that. I tried visualizing the scene in front of me in hopes that Alice would see us and bring others to help. One lonesome Jacob against eight vampires was no match for him. Then I remembered that Alice wouldn't be able to see us, because of Jacob's presence. I hoped with every fibre in my body that she would notice our sudden disappearance from her visions and come straight away.

"Now Jacob," Edward continued and I tuned back in. "I suggest you move along and go back to La Push. I would hate to have to fight you, as it would only hurt you."

Jacob snarled and crouched towards the ground, glaring directly at me. Edward mirrored him, so I had to let go of him. I felt surprisingly vulnerable when I wasn't holding on to Edward while Jacob was there with murder in his eyes.

"No, I came here on a mission, and I intend to carry it out, no matter what you say."

"It's your own demise," Edward snarled at him.

Jacob turned and ran into the forest, no doubt phasing back into his wolf form. We had mere seconds. Edward stood up and turned to me.

"Take these and get as far away from here as you can." He handed me the keys to his Vanquish and started pushing me towards it. "Get far enough away so that Alice can see you and wait for her to come. Then go back with her."

I stood still. "No."

Edward sighed. "Bella, hurry and get out of here." He tried pushing me again, but I stood stock still. "Bella!" He looked around. "Please, get yourself to safety. I can handle him. He's no match for me, he's still a pup!"

"Edward I can't leave you here with him. I can't leave you here in danger."

"Bella, we have ten seconds, you need to get out of here. I'm not in any danger; you're the one in the danger. Now go!"

I turned and shook my head.

"Bella please! I don't want you to get hurt!" he pleaded.

"I won't," I reached up and touched his face. "I'm strong, and I need to stay here with you. I can't leave you."

"Yes, yes you can." Edward looked around again. "Look, Bella. You need to get out of here. He intends to kill you and I have to get rid of him. I can't let you stay here and get hurt. Please! You only have five seconds!"

Edward tried pushing me towards the car again, but I turned around to face him and kissed him instead.

"Bella," he groaned.

"Shh," I hushed him and kissed him again.

Instinct told me that someone was behind Edward, so I cracked open my eye and saw Jacob there, only he was running towards us at top speed. He jumped through the air, intending to crush Edward and I, so I broke away from him, pushed him out of the way and jumped toward Jacob, colliding with him in mid air.

"Bella!" Edward yelled out and rolled into a crouched position, ready to attack once I was out of harm's way.

Jacob and I tumbled to the ground, snapping and snarling at each other. I held his arms in an iron grip, so they couldn't hurt me, but he tried kicking me off of him.

"Bella, please!"

"Edward, just get out of here!" I snarled.

"Not a chance!" he growled back.

"Don't want to miss your pet getting killed, do you?" Jacob challenged and I aimed a kick at his shin; a resounding crack was heard and he swore.

"So the puppy's learned to talk, huh?" Edward remarked before running into the trees and taking off.

"_Good," _I thought. _"Now he's out of harm's way."_

"You see, Bella. He left you, just like he always would; just like he always intended to. He doesn't really care about you, you were simply his toy and now he'd rather give you up than fight for you like a man," Jacob taunted.

His words just flared my anger and turned it into rage. I used a good portion of my strength to hold onto his wrists and flip his gigantic body up and overtop of mine, slamming it hard into the ground. I turned to face him as I heard Jacob whimper, then snarl and jump back on his feet.

Before I could react, Edward had thrown himself at Jacob from the side and knocked him over; the two of them went tumbling by. I growled and ran after them.

"Bella get out of here!" Edward growled and I snarled back in response.

I aimed a punch at Jacob and timed it so that it hit him on the side of his face as he tried to pin Edward down on the ground. Jacob whimpered again and hesitated for half a second, allowing Edward to pin him down. Jacob remembered what was happening and kicked Edward off of him, sending him flying. I immediately ran over and pushed Jacob backwards, away from the house.

"Bella, no! Let me handle it!" Edward yelled, running towards us.

I ignored him as Jacob launched himself at me yet again, so we ended up growling and tumbling on the dirt again, but this time I had an objective.

I remembered that our house wasn't that far away from the ocean, and on the way in I took notice of the tall cliffs above the water. With any luck, there would be some sort of rocks at the bottom, and if I could just push him off...

I cried out as one of Jacob's claws pierced the skin on my left arm. I jumped off of him and Edward immediately ran forward to take my place.

"That's it _dog_," he spat. "I have no choice but to kill you. Bella, go back to the house. Now!"

I looked at my arm and decided that it was nothing worth worrying about and ran towards Edward and Jacob. I swiftly knocked Edward off of Jacob and resumed pushing him towards the cliffs.

"Bella, what are you doing!" Edward yelled.

"I have a plan, alright; just please, trust me!" I growled back.

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose while continuing to run beside us, looking for an opportunity to cut in. Somehow, I don't even know how it happened, Jacob pinned me down to the forest floor and was about to strike my head, no doubt to rip it off, when Edward aimed a kick at his side and the sound of breaking ribs echoed through the trees around us. Jacob rolled over howling and I jumped up to stand by Edward, whose eyes were black and filled with rage. Edward started towards Jacob, who was still kneeling on the ground, but I caught his arm and held him in place.

"Bella, I have to end this right now. I have to kill him. He's wounded, this is my chance."

"No. I told you, I have a plan to get rid of him, just trust me," I pleaded. "I am capable of this; you know I am, please."

Edward looked at me for a tenth of a second. "All right, but as soon as something starts to go wrong, he is mine and I _am_ killing him right then."

I nodded and ran forwards, knocking Jacob over and pushing him towards the water once again. I caught a glimpse of Edward right beside us, not a foot away waiting for any sign to end Jacob's life.

Jacob was so incompetent from his latest injury that it was almost too easy. I could smell the water, and the trees were thinning when Jacob really began to fight back.

"He's healed," Edward hissed from my side. "Act fast, Bella, before his full strength returns!"

I aimed my body to tackle him when things started to go horribly wrong. I jumped him, rolling us closer to the edge of the trees when he pinned me down again, holding his arm out to strike my head, but Edward, knowing what Jacob was about to do by reading his thoughts, grabbed it and flipped him over to tackle Jacob.

Then several things happened at once that seemed to make time slow down.

Edward took the upper hand in this fight and I followed them closely. Soon, Edward slammed Jacob's body into the ground and gouged his face with his fingers. Jacob whined and growled and Edward grabbed the fur on the top of his head with one hand, reaching up with the other to strike him again when Jacob kicked him off again, using both his arms and legs, sending Edward flying farther than he ever had before.

I had turned my head for about an eighth of a second to see where Edward had gone and to make sure he was okay when I felt a horrible sensation in my right arm and pain flooded my shoulder. I turned my head in time to see Jacob throw my entire right arm far over his shoulder, chuckling. I let out one blood curling scream as I heard Edward yell out at the same time.

I stood frozen for a half a second, which was enough time for Jacob to jump me and pin my body down into the ground one last time. He put so much pressure on it that I felt myself sinking into the ground.

"_It must have rained here recently,"_ I thought to myself as Jacob grabbed my hair in one of his paws, pulling my head up to expose my neck to him and holding his claws out to strike it.

His arm started to come down and I closed my eyes, waiting for the feeling of his claws ripping off my head when all of a sudden his weight was gone from above me. He had been ripped off of me and in the process had ripped some hair out of my head, causing me to scream out again.

I was not the only one who screamed this time.

My own scream was mirrored by two other high-pitched ones. I tried to open my eyes, but the world was hazy and fuzzy in front of me, so I closed them again.

I heard someone that sounded a lot like Carlisle yell out, "Someone get her arm, quickly! There's still time!" and then I felt rough hands shaking me.

"Bella, please! Can you hear me? Please," Edward pleaded, his voice breaking.

"Edward," I said, just barely a whisper.

"Bella, stay with me. Everything will be okay. I promise," Edward spoke to me.

"Alice, bring it quickly!" Carlisle said.

I felt soft hands run through my hair, pushing it off my face and I could tell it was Esme, though she wasn't saying anything.

"Edward, prop her up," Carlisle ordered him and I felt Edward's hands lift my upper body up from under my shoulders and he rested it against his own body. I could feel his legs around me as he cradled my body to his.

"Rosalie, my kit."

I heard Rosalie get up and go get it.

"Bella, if you can hear me, please open your eyes for me," Carlisle said softly.

I tried fluttering my eyelids, but the haze was still there.

"It's foggy," I mumbled. "I can't."

Edward's voice was instantly in my ear. "Please, Bella. I'm so sorry. I never should have let you try and take Jacob, I'm sorry. Please try and open your eyes. I need you with me, love. You can't leave me. Everything will be alright. Carlisle is just going to re-attach your arm and you'll be back to normal."

"And Jacob?" I murmured.

"Taken care of," he said, reassuringly.

"Rosalie, lie that out, please; Alice, what is taking so long?" Carlisle asked.

"It's struggling," I heard her call out. "It's hard to hold."

"It's just trying to get back to her. Grab a hold of it and run it back quick, it'll figure out that you're intending to give it back to Bella," he instructed Alice. "Edward, hold her up, and take off her shirt. I need to see the wound."

Edward held me upright, but Esme spoke up.

"I'll do it." It sounded like she had been crying and she gently ripped off my shirt, leaving my bra on. I felt overexposed, especially with Carlisle there.

"Where is that arm?" Carlisle asked again.

"Right here," Alice said and I heard it thunk to the ground beside me.

"Please, love. Just open your eyes," Edward pleaded again.

This time when I opened them, the world was crystal clear. I could see that Carlisle was kneeling in front of me, preparing something with Rosalie's help. Alice was trying to hold my arm down on the ground as it struggled to leap off the mat that it had been placed on. Esme was on my left sobbing and pushed the hair off my face again. I could hear Edward exhale with relief and kiss the top of my head.

"Normally, the arm will attach itself perfectly, but I don't want to take any chances. I want to clean it up first," Carlisle explained. "This may or may not hurt, Bella, I'm not sure."

Carlisle then wiped something horrible smelling on the place where my right arm should be attached to my shoulder and I tried to look. Edward's hand gently pulled my face away.

"Don't look, love. You don't need to see this."

He was right. The whole situation was making me queasy, there was no way I could handle watching what they were doing.

"Does it burn?" Carlisle asked.

I shook my head. "It stings a tiny bit, but it's nothing I can't handle."

"Good. Alice, wipe down the arm quickly, make sure there's no dirt in it. I want to get this on her in the next half a minute before the wound starts to close up."

I gulped and I felt Edward's arms squeeze around me tighter. Esme took my left hand in hers and held it tight.

"It's ready, Carlisle," Alice said, her voice wavering.

"Good." I watched as Carlisle took the struggling arm in his hands and started coming closer to me.

I turned my head away and Edward's hand held my face firmly so that it was tucked into his left shoulder.

"Bella, this may hurt a little bit, but the pain is temporary," Carlisle explained and I felt him hold the arm join up to my shoulder socket.

I tried not to let out any sort of noise and be brave, for I knew that even one peep out of me would tear Edward apart, but the pain was just too much. I couldn't help myself from letting out an ear-piercing scream. The pain was not intense as that of my transformation into an immortal, but it certainly was unbearable.

"Bella," Edward croaked, his voice filled with pain as he held my body closer and tried to meld mine with his.

"Edward, you can't move her or else the bones won't grow out properly," Carlisle said to him calmly while still holding my arm in place.

I started to feel it then. I could feel the bones reaching out to each other, desperately trying to connect. I could feel every single vein stretching to their maximum to join up. The pain intensified and I let out another scream.

"Bella," Edward whispered, his voice broken. "I'm so sorry, Bella. I love you. I never should have let this happen. I'm so sorry."

Esme was sobbing again on my left and squeezed my hand in both of hers, rubbing her fingers over mine.

I could feel the muscles stretching to reattach the fibres and the pain intensified yet again. I screamed again and was met by more apologies by Edward. I started thrashing my legs from the pain.

"Hold her legs, Rosalie," Carlisle instructed as I felt him press his hand to my chest beside my shoulder to hold it in place. Edward's hold on me tightened as I realized I was trying to wrestle my way out of his arms, away from the pain.

"I can't Carlisle, she's stronger than me!" Rosalie called out, desperation evident in her voice.

"Alice?" Carlisle asked.

"I'm already holding her right leg, and I'm struggling too," she replied.

"Here, move out of the way, I've got it," Emmett said and I could feel his strong hands hold both my legs still in place, but neither Rosalie nor Alice let go.

"It's nearly done," Carlisle announced and I was glad. I hoped that the pain would reside soon.

I was wrong.

As the process came close to ending, the pain reached a whole new level. I could feel it, white hot, racing through that arm, up and down it and it centered in my shoulder. I closed my eyes as it overtook me and I couldn't help but scream out again and again. I knew I was tearing Edward apart, as he kept apologizing, but I couldn't hold them in. I could vaguely hear them as they conversed.

"Jasper, isn't there anything you can do for her?" Esme pleaded.

"I am," he replied from my left. "Can't you all feel the calm waves I'm sending out?"

"Yes, but can't you help her?" Edward said, desperately as I screamed again.

"I'm trying!" Jasper said. "I just can't get through to her. It's like she's put up a wall or something and I can't get past it. I'm trying though, Edward. Do you think I would honestly stand here and let her go through this without doing my best to help her?"

"No," Edward admitted.

"It's not just Jasper," Alice said quietly. "I can't see her future right now either. I haven't been able to since we found her."

"Can we discuss this later?" Emmett asked. "Now doesn't really seem like the time."

"Yes," Esme agreed, squeezing my hand tighter. "How much longer?"

"Should be any second now," Carlisle replied and I opened my eyes, but was unable to move my head as Edward was holding it to his chest.

At once, I was overtaken with pain. I felt everything in my right arm come together. I felt the bones touch each other. I felt the veins touch and fuse together. I felt the muscles reach each other and tighten. Everything attached in one second and I couldn't escape the pain. I screamed out, much louder than any of my previous ones as I felt this sensation. I felt Edward hold his breath as I screamed.

Then everything went limp. All my limbs were like jelly and I couldn't move them. I closed my eyes again and my head lolled against Edward's chest. He must have felt the change because he started calling out to me at once.

"Bella? Bella can you hear me? Are you okay? Bella?" his voice was filled with desperation.

"It's over," Carlisle announced and his voice sounded far away.

It felt like how it used to feel when I was a human and would pass out. I could sort of hear, but couldn't move my muscles or respond.

I felt Carlisle remove his hand from my chest as Rosalie, Emmett and Alice removed theirs from my still legs.

"Is she okay?" Esme asked, worried.

"I can see her now," Alice exclaimed. "She's about to pass out. Carlisle!"

"No," Edward immediately loosened his grip on my head and swivelled it around to face Carlisle who immediately started opening my eyelids.

"Bella," Carlisle said, his voice sounding farther and farther away.

"I thought vampires weren't supposed to pass out," Rosalie asked.

"They're not," Edward snarled, his voice sounding farther away than Carlisle's.

"Carlisle, has anyone....died.... from reattachment?" Emmett asked and Edward growled.

"Don't even think about it."

"I'm just asking."

"To answer your question, Emmett, no, no one has died that I have ever heard of. Mind you, I've never seen a vampire in such pain and distress as Bella was in either," Carlisle explained and Edward growled again.

"Jasper, quit playing with our emotions," Edward snapped at him.

"I'm sorry; I'm just trying to help. I'm trying to see if I can wake her out of this trance she's in through manipulating her emotions, I'm just not sure which one. I've never tried this on a vampire who's about to faint before."

Edward snarled and I vaguely felt his arms close around me again as someone lifted open my eyelids again.

"Edward, there's no reason to bite anyone's head off. We're all concerned about Bella and we want to see her healthy and okay again," Esme tried reasoning with Edward and he sighed.

"I know. It's just so hard. I _never_ should have let her stay and challenge Jacob. This is all my fault."

"Quit blaming yourself," Rosalie said. "This wasn't your fault at all. These things happen."

"They only seem to happen to the one person I truly can't live without in this world though," Edward pointed out and the group fell silent.

Just as I was about to sink into the final stage of fainting and succumb to the blackness, I felt my senses start to return to me as something jabbed into my left bicep.

"What was that?" Edward asked.

"Your venom," Carlisle answered. "She's exceptionally thirsty after all the work that her body had to do to reattach itself, it's no wonder she even made it through the procedure without fainting. She needs to hunt right away, but I don't want her doing it."

"I'll do it for her," Emmett offered and his voice became clearer.

"Me too," Rosalie said.

"Jasper and I will help to," Alice said. "Once she's fully aware though."

I felt strength return to my limbs and the pain was almost gone from my arm, though Edward accidentally jostled it and waves of pain shot through it. I groaned.

"Bella? Answer me, say anything. Can you wiggle your fingers? Anything, please," Edward pleaded again.

I nodded against his chest and felt his arms tighten around me as he pulled me up to a sitting position in his lap. My arm moved and I inhaled deeply, trying not to cry out.

"What is it?" he demanded at once.

"My arm," I slurred like a drunken person.

"Let me wrap it up for you," Carlisle offered and I nodded, opening my eyes.

The first thing I did was look at my wound. Surprisingly, it didn't look like much. There was a bit of a faint line where it was ripped off, but other than that it looked alright. Carlisle was still kneeled in front of me, pulling some sort of wrap out of his doctor's bag. Esme was still on my left, clutching my hand, ghost tears evident in her eyes. Standing behind her was Alice and Jasper. Alice had her arms wrapped around Jasper and he was holding her tight. She smiled weakly at me and I tried to return the gesture, but it only came out as a grimace. Rosalie and Emmett were sitting beside Esme; Rose was sitting in Emmett's lap with his arms tight around her waist. I looked up at Edward last.

His head was bent towards mine, intent on looking into my eyes to make sure I was okay. His eyes were filled with pain, hurt and desperation as they met my red ones. Again, my attempt at a smile turned into another grimace and he lightly touched my face, tracing my cheek.

"I'm so sorry, love," he whispered.

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

He closed his eyes. "I should have been there for you. I should have been the one fighting Jacob. I never should have let you try and win that alone. I was so stupid. _I _should be the one laying there enduring the pain you're going through. It should have been _my_ arm that was severed, not yours. It never should have been you."

Edward rested his forehead on my left shoulder and I kissed the side of his head.

"Edward," I whispered in his ear, resting my forehead against the side of his head. "You have no reason to be sorry. I've already told you that, but it's true. This wasn't your fault. If anything it was mine. I deserve to have this happen to me. I should never have tried to take on a werewolf when I'm so young. I'm just thankful that it was just my arm and nothing worse."

He turned to look at me, horrified.

"Bella! How can you say that about yourself? You do _not_ deserve this at all. I-"

"So what? You're going to try and convince me that this is all your fault? It's not. It's my fault. Stop blaming yourself. I've accepted that I did this to myself and you need to accept that this was out of your hands."

"But if I had just been stronger or faster and held my ground before he kicked me off, I could have ended that and nothing would have happened to you."

"Edward, there is no way that you could have been any of those things. You were already trying your very hardest and if you had tried any harder, you just would have hurt yourself."

"It would have been better than sitting here watching you scream out in pain," he grumbled.

I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw and fist.

"Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, you need to go hunt for her now," Carlisle suggested and they all stood up.

"No, no. I can do it," I protested, trying to stand up, but Edward's iron grip held me down.

"Don't even think about it," he growled.

I sighed and lay back against him, giving up; my arm hurt too much.

"Edward, I'm sorry," I apologized.

"Whatever are you sorry for, love?"

"I'm sorry that you had to sit here and witness this. I'm sorry that I kept screaming out. I know that it hurt you a lot, but please, this wasn't your fault. I'm so sorry. I know it was tearing you apart with every noise I made and I really tried to be quiet, but-"

He clamped a hand down over my mouth gently.

"Do not feel sorry. I know that you were hurting and I don't resent you for yelling out. I probably would have done the same thing, were I lying there," he said while absently running his fingers over my cheek.

I shook my head and he lifted his hand off my mouth.

"No you wouldn't have. You would have tried with everything in you to hold it in. You have so much more self-restraint than I could ever wish for."

He shook his head and kissed my cheek, jostling my shoulder in the process, making me gasp in pain.

"Bella, oh, I'm sorry," he began apologizing immediately.

"It's fine," I replied.

"Why don't you let me wrap it up for you, it may help with the pain," Carlisle offered and I nodded.

"What if it doesn't go away?" Edward asked. I tried to sit up, but his arms around my waist wouldn't let me. "What can we do for the pain?"

"Edward, quit being so over protective; I'll be fine," I said, trying to sit up again, but he held me back. "Love, I'm not going anywhere, I'd just like to get this wrapped up."

He sighed and unwrapped his arms and I leaned forward. Carlisle moved in to begin wrapping it, but Edward remained in the same spot with a hand on the left side of my waist, refusing to totally let me go. As Carlisle worked, Esme talked to me.

"Bella, I would really like it if you and Edward came to live with us back at home for the moment. I want to make sure that you're both safe and that you heal properly," she said.

"That sounds good, Esme," I replied.

"We'll get started on your room right away," she promised. "I know that between Alice and me we'll make it into something that you won't mind being in whenever you come home."

I nodded and inhaled sharply as Carlisle finished wrapping it up and in taping down the end pushed on my shoulder and pain shot through it. Edward's hand on my waist tightened and he started rubbing up and down my back.

"Sorry, Bella," Carlisle apologized. "I'm all finished though."

"Thanks Carlisle," I said as Edward's hands pulled me back so that I was leaning against him again.

Just then, the others returned, each holding a deer in their arms.

"Here you go, Bella," Alice said, skipping over and placing one in front of Edward and I.

I looked down at it as the others placed theirs around us too, suddenly feeling very self conscious about eating all these in front of them.

"What's wrong, Bella? Do you need a straw?" Emmett chuckled and Edward growled.

"Boys," Esme said in a warning voice.

"I can't eat all these by myself, you should all have some too," I said to them, looking around at the dark circles that were starting to form around everyone's eyes.

"No, Bella. _You_ need to eat these by yourself," Alice said.

"You guys, let's just go hunt," Jasper suggested and they all looked at him. He shrugged. "Bella feels guilty about eating in front of us like this, so if we leave, she'll eat."

Emmett smirked and shook his head. "Always the modest one. We really don't mind, you know."

"Let's just go," Rosalie said, walking away towards Jasper, pushing Emmett along.

Carlisle stood and offered Esme his hand to help her stand up and Alice bounded over to Jasper.

"Coming Edward?" Rosalie asked, looking at her nails.

"Not a chance," he replied.

I shook my head. "No, you should go. You need to hunt too, love; I can see that you're thirsty."

"Don't worry about me. Go ahead," he said to the others and they left.

"You should have gone."

"I'm not leaving you here. I'm not leaving you alone, ever" he said while burying his head in the back of my neck. "Now you should start on these before they get cold."

"Only if you eat half of them," I bartered him and heard him sigh.

"It's tempting, but no. I can't do that. You need them more than I do."

"Well I'm not eating unless you are."

"Bella."

"Edward."

He sighed again. "Fine."

Edward kissed my good shoulder and moved out from behind me to sit directly in front of me, leaning down over a deer. He started feeding from it, not taking his eyes off of me. I closed my own and let my teeth plunge into the deer and drank its blood until there was none left. I did the same thing with the other one and when I finished I looked up at Edward who gestured to the last deer. I shook my head and raised an eyebrow. He shook his head and rolled his eyes before sinking his teeth into its flesh.

"See, I told you she was in need of a straw," Emmett joked, as the rest of them came back through the trees towards us, their eyes golden again.

I rolled my eyes and stood up; Edward was instantly at my side with his arm around my waist.

I looked around at everyone's faces before asking, "So what happened to Jacob?"

"We took care of him," Jasper replied and I felt a wave of calm come over me.

I tried to shake it off. "But how?"

"Don't worry about it, Bella, it's done," Emmett said as Jasper sent another calming wave over me and I no longer pressed the question.

"Why don't we go back to the house so we can talk?" Esme suggested and everyone agreed.

"But our front door is busted, it'll need to be fixed before we leave," Edward pointed out.

"And I need a shirt or something," I remembered that I was only in my bra from before. Edward quickly took off his shirt and handed it over to me. I shook my head, but he rolled his eyes and forced it over my head.

"Already taken care of," Rosalie said, smirking.

"Thanks, Rose," he said and she shrugged.

Carlisle packed up his bag and took Esme's hand. "Bella, are you going to be alright to run to the house?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"I can carry her," Edward said.

"But I won't be able to hold on; I only have one arm."

He looked down at me. "I'm not going to let go of you, you'll be fine."

"Whatever," Rosalie said. "You two can argue over this, I'll see you back at the house." She and Emmett both ran into the forest then.

"Bella, trust me," Alice said to me. "Nothing is going to happen to you. You're going to arrive in one piece."

I sighed. "You know I don't overly like it when you carry me."

"Liar," Edward whispered and I shook my head.

"Come on, up you go," Jasper said to me and picked me up and gently placed me on Edward's back.

I wrapped my good arm around his neck, trying not to suffocate him.

"Bells, you don't have to hold on so tight, I'm not going to let you go." He wrapped his arms around his back and they held me to his body, but it was also pressing my shoulder into him, making it hurt.

"Edward, I can't do this. It hurts just standing here. I'm sorry; I don't mean to be a pain."

"Bella, you are not a pain."

Edward reached around and smoothly pulled my body around to his front where he cradled me close to his chest, his right arm behind my back and his left under my knees.

"Edward," I groaned, looking around at Jasper, Alice, Esme and Carlisle.

"Bella," Edward said, teasingly before kissing me lightly. "Ready?"

I nodded and he began running with the others following close behind us back to the house.

**Review please! : )**


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